As federal food benefits have been frozen during the US government shutdown, Catholic dioceses and charities around the country are holding emergency food drives and launching fundraising efforts. Source: CNA.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will resume once the government passes a bill to fund the federal government — but, more than a month into the shutdown, there is no set end date in sight.
The pause in SNAP benefits is estimated to affect about 42 million Americans.
In St Louis, food pantries saw an influx of people in need. In response, parishes across the archdiocese are holding emergency food drives for the first two weekends of November.
Nearly 300,000 people in the area could “lose access to vital food benefits,” Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski said in a letter to pastors, whom he asked to “respond with love and generosity to this urgent need”.
“We are called to be people of faith and action,” Archbishop Rozanski said. “And so, I ask the good people of our archdiocese to come together to help our neighbours who are in danger of going without their ‘daily food’.”
The archdiocese is working with the local Catholic Charities and the Society of St Vincent de Paul to ensure that food pantries are full.
Julie Komanetsky, a spokesperson for the Society of St Vincent de Paul in St Louis, said the food drives are “bringing great results for our food pantries”.
“This is our faith in action,” she said. “Like the story of the good Samaritan who sees the victim and cares for him, Catholics see that people need to be fed and they are responding. They are answering God’s call to be good Samaritans rather than indifferent bystanders!”
St. Louis is not the only archdiocese finding creative solutions to the SNAP crisis. In Connecticut, Hartford Archbishop Christopher Coyne has released $500,000 of emergency funding to food banks.
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Catholic Charities is seeing a similar rise in need. Across its three food pantries, Catholic Charities is extending hours and increasing distribution as well as offering emergency rental assistance to federal workers.
As part of a nationwide effort, Catholic Charities USA launched a fundraising effort in light of the funding cuts. The funds raised will go directly toward buying and sending food to Catholic Charities across the country to support ministries such as food pantries and soup kitchens.
FULL STORY
‘This is our faith in action:’ Catholic groups expand food aid amid SNAP cuts (By Kate Quiñones, CNA)
