From the Arkansas Advocate:
November is the busiest time of year at Arkansas Foodbank, and the federal government shutdown threatens to create additional need for the nonprofit’s services from the state’s SNAP recipients and federal employees.
The shutdown brings uncertainty about how long food safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can continue paying out benefits to those enrolled across the U.S. In Arkansas, which has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the country, food banks like Northwest Arkansas Food Bank are preparing for an expected surge in demand if the shutdown isn’t resolved in short order.
“If they don’t come to an agreement to where SNAP continues to get funded, then those people who are on SNAP are going to have to go someplace else to find food,” CEO Kent Eikenberry said. “And that’s going to be us.”
“The entire food ecosystem, in terms of hunger relief, is impacted by a government shutdown,” said Claire Tiffin, the director of community engagement for Arkansas Foodbank.
SNAP is funded through October, according to Arkansas Department of Human Services spokesperson Gavin Lesnick, but he said the department is awaiting guidance on November benefits.
Tiffin said Arkansas Foodbank expects there will be interruptions to SNAP payments if the shutdown continues into next month. Any disruptions would come at “just a horrible time of year” when food banks are typically “maxed out” due to Thanksgiving, she said.
Along with the possibility of more demand because of lost SNAP benefits, the state’s food banks are also bracing for thousands of federal employees who will start missing paychecks this month.
If the funding impasse isn’t resolved by those first missed paychecks, Tiffin said, “we are going to be seeing an immediate impact at pantries.”
“So we’re gearing up for it — hoping that it’s a short shutdown, fearing that it’s not going to be — and preparing accordingly,” she said.
Regional population differences
Central Arkansas, where Arkansas Foodbank operates, has more than double the number of federal employees than the Northwest region, according to Census data of federal employees by Congressional district. That doesn’t include federal contractors or military personnel.
That blunts the shutdown’s impacts for Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, Eikenberry said, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be any effects if the government doesn’t reopen in the coming weeks.
Eikenberry said those in need have his organization in their corner.
“The message in Northwest Arkansas is, we’ve been here since 1988. … We’ll figure out a way to get through it,” he said, adding that the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank doesn’t use federal money. “We’re, for all intents and purposes, privately funded.”
Arkansas Foodbank does take advantage of federal food insecurity programs, Tiffin said — 15% of its food comes from U.S. Department of Agriculture programs. But she said the food bank has been working to offset the loss of those resources during the shutdown via emergency fundraisers. This isn’t their first government shutdown, she said, and they’ve used that experience to prepare and explore their options.
But SNAP is crucial, Tiffin said, because for every meal Arkansas Foodbank provides, the federal food programs provides nine.
“We are only a piece of the solution” for food insecurity, she said. “SNAP is the biggest solution and so when we lose that, we lose a lot of coverage for our families.”
Farmers
The organizations providing food for those in need aren’t the only ones in the food ecosystem that stand to be affected by the shutdown.
Arkansas’ farmers, already hurting from low commodity prices compounded by rising production costs, have lost access to the expertise they rely on from local USDA offices, said Brandy Carroll, director of commodity activities and market information for Arkansas Farm Bureau. Similarly, Carroll said accessing crop report data, another source of important information for farmers, has posed a problem since funding expired.
According to Hunter Biram, an agricultural extension economist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, roughly a third of the aid Arkansas farmers were expecting is on hold due to the funding lapse, and enrollment is paused for some programs such as disaster relief for farms. The Emergency Commodity Assistance Program, which provides farmers money for crop losses when prices are low and costs are high, has also run out of money, and farmers can’t get marketing assistance loans.
Biram said it’s “really important” for the government to reopen in order for farmers to get those loans, as well as the economic and disaster assistance they were already expecting.
“Overall, we’re looking at probably about $180 million worth of government assistance for Arkansas crop farms that’s being held up right now,” Biram said. “About a third of what we normally would get is hanging out there.”
