House Bill 1784, which passed the House without opposition and now sits in the Senate, would provide a $28 million advance in general fund dollars for food security in specific response to the end of emergency SNAP allocations. Recent proposals from the Washington state Legislature and Governor’s Office could send support to hunger relief agencies. “We’re just trying to survive and get people fed,” Spencer said. I don’t know how families are affording it without us.” “I went out to buy them and I was shocked at the prices. “I’ve been trying to get my hands on potatoes, which normally 99% of the time I can get from Coastal Harvest. For Spencer, it’s meant buying more food with money from the food bank’s own budget, and looking for deals at local grocery stores. Less food from Coastal Harvest forced the Salvation Army to decrease the number of repeat visits allowed each month. Coastal Harvest Executive Director Brent Hunter said the influx of federal support for hunger relief during the pandemic has dried up, yet supply chain issues are lingering.įood Lifeline, another distributor to local food banks, said in a recent newsletter that its food inventory is one-quarter of pre-pandemic levels. While food banks now have more mouths to feed, the inventory received from local suppliers has shrunk.Ĭoastal Harvest is a Hoquiam hunger relief nonprofit that distributes food to more than 60 frontline groups in the region, and is a major supplier to Grays Harbor food banks. Gilbert guessed the Salvation Army could feed 1,000 people - higher than average for the last few years - in the coming months. Gilbert told The Daily World in December that the food bank was seeing hundreds of new people each month. Kim Gilbert, service center coordinator of the Salvation Army in Aberdeen, said the food bank there is also serving about three times as many people as it was about one year ago. Early data from 2023 show it’s on pace to serve even more than that this year. The Aberdeen Food Bank served over 10,000 families in 2022 - three times the number of families it served in 2019. “Even before that happened our numbers were rising,” Spencer said. Spencer said the food bank didn’t know if the SNAP reduction, specifically, had caused more people to come that day. For now, it distributes pre-packaged brown bags of food, each with different amounts based on family size.Ībout an hour after the food bank opened on Tuesday it had served 225 families - 25 more than a typical day. ![]() There, Director Cher Spencer hopes to open up a grocery-style bank in a large concrete room, where visitors will be able to walk in and pick out foods. The all-volunteer food bank recently moved into a building at 2120 Commerce St. The Aberdeen Food Bank is in a much different space - literally and figuratively - than it was when the pandemic began. Ultimately, though, Major said he’ll probably start to rely more heavily on local food banks, which he has never visited on a regular basis. In addition, Major said he was able to qualify for a Working Families Tax Credit through the state. His kids can eat meals at school, while a local church has provided lunches and produce.ĭSHS has encouraged clients to utilize the SNAP Market Match program, which stretches the value of food stamps for purchases of fruits and vegetables. Major said he’s been more strategic about taking advantage of sales at grocery stores, stocking up on meats and canned goods. Other food sources are filling the gaps left by the expired SNAP benefits. “That’s a significant amount of money you’re not trying to find in the rest of your budget,” Major said. But those who did receive benefits were receiving more, on average, than a year earlier. ![]() State data shows the number of people receiving SNAP benefits in Washington declined from 2021 to 2022.
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