KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — Uncertainty surrounding funding for federal meals help applications due to the federal government shutdown has Michigan meals banks seeing a rise in want.
Feeding America West Michigan says it expects the necessity to develop the longer the shutdown drags on.
Maintaining the cabinets stocked on the nonprofit’s Kentwood warehouse is a continuing job and with questions surrounding future funding for meals applications like WIC and SNAP employees could also be busier than ever earlier than.
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Ken Estelle, the president and CEO of the nonprofit, mentioned it’s already seeing excessive demand.
“Just because of uncertainty, there are more people coming to some of our food distributions because they just are not sure what may happen, so even though they may not have been directly impacted yet, we’re seeing that increase,” Estelle mentioned. “We’ve been hearing a lot, a lot of it is just unknown, we’re kind of waiting. There’s a number of programs that we’re involved with that could be impacted.”
Whereas WIC and SNAP haven’t run out of funding, Estelle mentioned any delay or doubt about cash results in extra individuals turning to charitable meals organizations. Moreover, some federal applications would have a direct impression on the meals these organizations can present.
“We get about 30% of the food we distribute comes from USDA commodity food programs where the USDA provides us food, a lot of it from Michigan farms, that we then provide to folks in need. That program right now, we’re not able to put in any new orders for those commodities,” Estelle mentioned.
The nonprofit doesn’t know if any of its meals shipments will probably be delayed or canceled.
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The final authorities shutdown on the finish of 2018 into 2019 had Feeding America working to fulfill a rising demand from federal employees who stopped receiving pay checks.
“We actually ended up helping a number of federal workers at the airport — TSA workers and the like that weren’t getting a paycheck — so we were doing food distributions there,” Estelle mentioned.
The group is making an attempt to stay hopeful that Congress can give you an settlement to reopen.
“We’re kind of anxiously looking to see how long this goes and if it goes another week or two we could end up really looking at some federal employees in our area that aren’t getting a paycheck and we will need to be able to help them as well,” Estelle mentioned.
Personal donations assist the nonprofit meet the elevated want. If you wish to make a donation, you are able to do so by means of the Feeding America West Michigan web site.
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