Philly food banks report long lines, meal shortages and a spike in donations amid SNAP ‘crisis’

At the Everywhere Project's weekly outreach event at LOVE Park on Wednesday night, director Thomas Frey said about 400 people stood in line to get a hot meal for an event that normally serves anywhere from 120 to 140 people. Volunteers had to call for pizza when they ran out of food with 45 minutes of serving time to go, and they began giving out some of the food donations from a collection drive while they waited for it to be delivered.

"We resorted to … ripping open cans of peanut butter and jelly and heating up vegetables on the stove just to get some hot foods," Frey said. "We were processing and feeding some of those donations within minutes of receiving them last night. Everybody got fed, but it took us an hour longer to do it."

MORE: With SNAP benefits in flux, Philly finds short-term funding solutions but has no long-term answers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and and President Donald Trump said that starting Nov. 1 they wouldn't provide money for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program until the end of the government shutdown. On Thursday, a judge ordered the federal government to fund the program this month, although it's still unclear when those funds would reach recipients.

In Philadelphia, that means 475,000 people who rely on the benefits currently don't have a way to pay for food. In the interim, food banks, pantries, community fridges, mutual aid groups and other resources have been left to fill in the gap and get groceries and hot meals to those who need it.

One week after the SNAP freeze, many pantries reported seeing two or three times as many people seeking services. The Share Food Program, which provides groceries in bulk to pantries and community fridges, said demand has increased 12-fold. A twice-weekly sit-down meal at St. Mark's Church in Frankford has now expanded to four meals per week, and organizers are considering bumping it up to six. At Caring for Friends in Northeast Philly, CEO Vince Schiavone said seniors were hit particularly hard as many don't drive and have a stagnant income.

Frey has also seen more need for home deliveries and options outside of work hours, such as the LOVE Park event, as many who work full time and rely on SNAP haven't been able to make it to food pantries before they close. A fight even broke out in line Wednesday when people saw they were starting to run out of food.

At Share Food, Executive Director George Matysik said a big change has been the amount of people standing in lines who have never been to a food pantry before. For now, he said they're stretching resources by giving everyone a little less food, but there's no way food banks can "prop up" the gap left by SNAP long term. For every $1 of food provided by a food bank, $9 are provided by SNAP funds, according to Community Legal Services in Philadelphia.

"Food banks are meant to be strictly supplemental," Matsyik said. "Historically, the work that we do is not to provide a week's worth of meals, but to provide a little bit extra, a little bit above and beyond with a particular focus on nutritious food. What we are doing now is true relief work, where we are undergoing a crisis unlike any we've ever seen before."

On Saturday, Mayor Cherelle Parker signed an executive order to establish the $14 million One Philly (SNAP) Support Program, which will distribute millions to food organizations. But it's unclear how long it can keep up support, especially with heightened demand. Organizations said they actually began seeing more people use their resources in October, when benefit qualifications changes took effect, and they've been getting less money from federal resources since the beginning of the year.

For now, services are staying afloat, especially with the help of community dollars and food industry donations. Margaux Murphy, the founder of the Sunday Love Project, said that despite the longer lines and increased demand, her community and grant-funded organization hasn't had any issues getting food thus far, although she does expect demand to increase.

As a smaller operation, St. Marks relies entirely on community support to run its programming, Mancini said, and they've received a number of food and monetary donations. Thus far, it's helped them add the extra meals, and the increased outreach has been encouraging.

"I wish that it hadn't come to this, but now that we're here, I'm just really heartened by all of the good work that everyone all around us is doing," Mancini said.

Connor Watson, a pastoral intern and vicar at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Kensington, runs a weekly food pantry on Thursdays. Everyone who stops by gets a bag of nonperishable items, plus bread and a salad kit if they have it. He's also seen demand go up since October, although donations have kept things sustainable. But he's worried about what might happen if the shutdown continues and donations slow.

"If we can keep up getting donations, I think we can figure it out and get it going, but folks get donor fatigue after a while, and I understand that 100%," Watson said. "… But no matter what, we are committed to making sure anybody that comes in our doors gets something."

Frey is also worried about what the coming weeks will bring. He's concerned that food banks and pantries have "used all that grace and goodness" that typically brings an influx of resources around the holidays. He hasn't yet started a food drive for Thanksgiving even though at this time last year he had 75 turkeys in the freezer. This year, he had one and gave it away on Wednesday night.

Schiavone is less concerned about a drop in donations with the holidays, and Caring for Friends plans to give out 10,000 turkey meals in the week before and after Thanksgiving. But he's worried that an end to the shutdown will mean donations will stall.

"My concern is people thinking, if they suddenly open up the government and SNAP is reopened that everything's OK — because it's not," Schiavone said. "Our demand this year, before (the SNAP freeze) has been higher than the last three years. Seniors and poor families are doing more with less than they ever have."