Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 42 million Americans at risk as food assistance running out

Transcript

42 million Americans at risk as food assistance running out · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And let's stick deeper into the impact of SNAP food
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: assistants running out, a program that helps to feed some
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: forty two million Americans. Joining us live now is Kyle Wade,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the president and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Kyle,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for being with us. With SNAP
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: benefits or food stamps effectively expected to run out November
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: fir first, because we're being told the well has run
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: dry because of this government shut down, just talk to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: us first and foremost about the kind of surge in
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: demand you're expecting, given that there are forty two million
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Americans across the country who rely on this program.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Well, it's great to be here, and I think the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: starting point for answering your question is just to acknowledge
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: that lines are already very long at food pantries all
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: across the country. At my food bank, we've seen the
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: demand for food assistants increase by about seventy percent over
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: the last three and a half years due to inflation.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: There's just a lot more economic pressure on families across
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: our community. And as you noted, there are just a
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: really large number of people forty two million people across
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: the country, one point five million people here in the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: state of Georgia that rely on the SNAP program to
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: connect them with the nutrition that they need. In Georgia alone,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: they receive about two hundred and fifty million dollars a
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: month in those SNAP benefits. Last year, our food bank
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: distributed across the entire year two hundred and eighty million
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: dollars worth of groceries. And so in effect, one month's
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: worth of activity is equal to what we do in
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: an entire year. It would be impossible for us to
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: make up the full difference of what is being disrupted,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: and we know it's just going to add to the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: lines that are already very long at the food pantries
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: that are serving our communities today.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: So the lines are already long, as you point out that,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you said there's been a seventy percent increase the number
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of people relying on your food bank because of inflation,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and then on top of that, you've got this interruption,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: this potential interruption to the SNAP program happening on November first.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: So just explain to us what you are doing at
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the food bank to sort of support people who might
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: need extra help because of the disruption to SNAP access.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is you know, increased distribution,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: longer hours, hiring more volunteers, just walk us through that
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: side of things.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Sure, so it's kind of all of the above in
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the way that we're approaching this current crisis. Certainly it
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: starts with just making sure we are in dialogue with
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: our elected leaders, both here at the state level and
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: up in DC to help them understand what we are
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: seeing and experiencing and expecting in terms of demand in
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: our community, and hopefully that will help them as they
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: go through the process of trying to resolve this situation.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: We are working with a variety of different local partners
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: to schedule some targeted distribution activity to get more food
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: and groceries close to where there are concentrations of federal
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: employees who, as your team noted, are also really impacted
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: by this shutdown, Folks who are not going to get
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: paid this week for the first time. We're trying to
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: get food to those folks. And then we're working with
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: our suppliers to both get more donated food and to
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: purchase more food that we can then route through the
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: community as we get deeper into this shutdown. You know,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: this time of year is our highest volume period of
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the year for food distribution already, and so our inventory
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: is under significant strain as it is, we're going to
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: have to work very hard to go get more food
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: to support that demand for my food bank locally, we're
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: hoping to increase our distribution capacity by as much as
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: thirty percent to support increased demand. But again, if all
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: of those SNAP recipients turn to us for help who
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: normally get help from the SNAP program, there's no way
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: we can meet that full increase.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And you talked about relying on your suppliers obviously donors
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: because of as community assistance. Out of those, out of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: what you just listed when it comes to sort of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: making up the shortfall in funding, what are some of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the resources that would actually make the biggest difference right
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: now as a SNAP program prepares to run out.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, let's not forget to make the main thing.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: The main thing. We just need the government to be
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: open and for the SNAP program to be not disrupted.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: We do know that the government does have some flexibility
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: to fund the program through some other means temporarily, and
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: we would encourage them to explore ways to do that.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Absent that, you know, food banks across the country are
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: going to need more help right now. They're going to
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: need your financial support so that we can get more
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: food into the system and get that food close to
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: where people are. And we're going to need volunteers, you know,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: we're gonna need volunteers at our main facilities. We're gonna
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: need volunteers out in those pantry locations so that we
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: can serve a longer line of people who need our
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: help right now.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Right Carl Wade of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, thank
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you so much.