Olmsted County Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Thein signaled the money isn’t a long-term solution. He asked members of the community to step up.
“We challenge our broader community likewise to take bold action to support their neighbors here in Olmsted County. Without that, some families will go hungry and county funds will fall short as soon as the middle of November,” Thein said.
There are nearly 13,000 people on SNAP in Olmsted County, who collectively receive about $1.9 million monthly in benefits.
Witherspoon still worries about the potential crush of demand in the next few weeks. Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth and Families announced Tuesday that SNAP and MFIP recipients won’t get their November benefits until Congress can reach a deal, although some cash welfare assistance will still go out.
For every one meal that food banks provide, SNAP provides nine of them.
“We don’t have the food or the funding to bridge that gap,” Witherspoon said. “So if you do this, we will be turning people away.”
Sara Carlson turned to Channel One when she and her kids faced food insecurity years ago. Now, she serves on the food bank’s board. She said this is an especially challenging moment for Minnesotans getting by with less — or going without.
“It’s going to hurt people,” Carlson said. “That’s what keeps me up at night, thinking about the people that are facing this reality right now. And it’s more people, it’s a ton of people. Even just the threat to think, like, in a couple of weeks, ‘I’m not going to have this resource to feed my kids.’”
Channel One will keep serving families. But Witherspoon said without a change in trajectory, they’ll send them off with emptier grocery bags. She said she’s implored lawmakers to end the shutdown — or at least approve SNAP and emergency food assistance.
So far, the message hasn’t broken through.
“I don’t know whose fault it is. I don’t spend much time thinking about that. I just think about telling lawmakers what the result is of not having staff,” Witherspoon said, “and it’s catastrophic.”
MPR News correspondent Catharine Richert contributed to this story.
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