GREEN ISLAND, N.Y. (NEWS10) —The federal government shutdown is now on day 36 and for many who rely on SNAP, it means added stress about how to afford food. But in Albany County, local officials and community groups are joining forces to help.
Albany County is holding a series of drive-thru food distributions in partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. This was their second food drive of the day with three more to go.
The line of cars and the amount of food being handed out there was speaking for itself, many families told NEWS10’s Tyanna Xavier they do not receive their SNAP benefits this month and they are worried because they do not know when they are coming in.
NEWS10’s Tyanna Xavier also spoke to Jim Place who is a grandfather picking up food for one of his daughter’s families which holds 3 of his grandchildren who did not receive their SNAP benefits this month.
“It’s affecting them big time. I mean, they’re low-income mothers, single mothers trying to raise kids on their own. You know, I do what I can to help, you know, but it’s a struggle, you know, even for wealthy families, it’s a struggle to put food in kids’ mouths these days,” said Place.
With families like Place’s saying grocery prices are hard to keep up with, even when they were getting their benefits it still seemed to not be enough to support their family.
NEWS10’s Tyanna Xavier asked Place, “How often would you guys go grocery shopping? like once a week?” He responded, “Oh, it’s on a daily basis, you know, probably at least two or three times a week. You know, just to pick up stuff here and there, milk, you know, and stuff that you need, you know, because you go through it on such a consistent basis,” said Place.
According to Tom Nardacci, CEO of the Regional Food bank, food pantry partners are reporting that they’re seeing double and triple the need, so in order to help them out they created drive thru food distributions.
“Our team pulled this together within the last couple of weeks,” said Nardacci.
But to get it done they needed all hands-on deck.
“The governor declared a state of emergency and released more funds. And number two, we had done the announcement to Albany County. Albany County had released $250,000 in funds to the regional Food bank that’s supporting distributions like this. And then third, the United Way is working with the county as well on a program to get people gift cards that will be matched,” Nardacci.
When Nardacci talks about the gift cards being matched, he is referring to every donation made to United Way for grocery store gift cards intended for SNAP, Albany County will match those donations up to $500,000.
There were tons of food to go around with only 50 volunteers. The drive thru started at 11:30 A.M. and there were so many cars that they had to start giving away food nearly an hour beforehand.
Maureen, who also came to pick up food for her family of 3, told me the pressure of not having SNAP back yet and while being unemployed.
“It makes it a lot more stressful,” said Maureen. “We needed some food, and I thought it’d be a good idea to support the regional food bank if people don’t show up, they stop coming, you know, and I did the same thing during COVID when they gave out lunches.”
“People are grateful, you know, people really don’t want to be here. You know, they don’t want to have to come through a drive thru and pick up food. But the reality is that people need it. You know, I think that there was already a crisis of affordability before the shutdown. So now people have been struggling to make ends meet,” said Nardacci.
These food drives will continue until the federal shutdown is done and the snap benefits are replenished. For the full schedule of when these food drives will be and where visit the Regionalfoodbank.net.
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