Food banks can’t save the day this time

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, food banks across the country have stepped up to support America’s most vulnerable and the working class alike.

During the pandemic, Farm Share and other food banks became the backbone of the national response and survival effort, providing access to safe and reliable food for everyone. This effort continued for nearly two years.

Thereafter, decades of high inflation put pressure on Americans’ ability to make ends meet, forcing many to choose between paying rent, putting gas in their car, or putting food on the table for their families. This struggle continues today, with more than 50% of Floridians still making these hard choices and fighting just to survive.

Amid these larger-scale issues, Floridians faced major hurricanes, flooding, and tornadoes, leaving very few counties unharmed. During it all, food banks like Farm Share were there to provide immediate and long-term food and support.

Now we are once again faced with a looming food crisis, in many respects nearly as severe as the pandemic. With the pause in SNAP benefits, 42 million Americans, including a disproportionate number of seniors and children, will instantly lose access to their primary source of healthy and nutritious food. Once again, food banks are being asked to step up and respond. Only this time the cupboard is bare. Significant cuts to federal and state funding and historic food programs have handcuffed food banks’ ability to act as a lifeline.

Food banks are struggling to meet current demand for their services, let alone the additional strain from hungry federal workers and 42 million SNAP recipients. It is also nearly impossible at this point to make the necessary resources available to address the immediate crisis, given the ongoing government shutdown. Only the federal government has the resources necessary to fully redress this issue.

Given the high stakes involved, the government must reopen and fulfill its most basic task: providing essential services to its citizens. Ultimately, the American people will decide the winners and losers of this standoff. But in the meantime, seniors, children, blue-collar workers, and America’s most vulnerable are losing now, and their lives and health are being placed at risk when they shouldn’t have to be.

Please open the government immediately, debate the issues, and make policy as the founders intended, but, most importantly, do no harm in the process.

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Stephen Shelley is president and CEO of Farm Share, Inc., Florida’s homegrown food bank.