People from a variety of sectors in Springfield filled the community room at the Schweitzer Brentwood Brach Library in Springfield Wednesday. They were there to address the looming loss of SNAP benefits due to the federal government shutdown. The goal of the meeting organized by the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation or OACAC was to coordinate efforts and to make sure people get the most accurate and up to date information about where to find resources.
"Community action agencies...one of our tenets is to mobilize the community when there are needs out there," said Skylar Walker, director of the Community Services Block Grant program at OACAC. "Whether it's employment, housing, food, health, community action agencies really come together, get that community and see what we can do,"
OACAC, which serves Greene and nine surrounding counties, estimates that about 65,000 people receive SNAP benefits in their service area. If the shutdown continues and SNAP benefits aren’t issued, hunger relief organizations will have a lot of demand to meet.
Amanda Berry with Empower Missouri told the group that she worries about the trickledown effect the loss of SNAP benefits will have. The average state total monthly benefits issued in Missouri is around $131,521,000. The average benefit amount is about $400 per household.
"I say this because it's important to keep in mind that, when people are forced with having to choose, you know, they lose their $400 in benefits, and they have to choose — 'now, am I going to have to pay utilities or rent?' They're probably going to put food on the table," she said. "We work in areas of food security and affordable housing and community justice so we're also looking at the trickledown effects of this."
Many people who attended talked about what they or their organizations are doing to help.
Jordan Browning, spokesman for Ozarks Food Harvest, said they've released about $500,000 to purchase additional food to go out across their 28-county service area. They're also releasing about $300,000 in grant funds to their partner agencies to make sure they have funds to purchase what they need "whether that's food capacity, refrigeration units, trucks, anything like that."
He said food drives would be really helpful right now, but those who want to hold them should work with existing agencies in the area like Crosslines, the Salvation Army and Least of These "simply because so many people already know where these organizations are. They operate very efficiently, and they're going to be able to get food as quickly as possible into the hands of people that need it."
Representatives of local churches talked about their food pantries and other efforts to feed the hungry. And two local healthcare organizations talked about their efforts to help. Brittany Dyer, who said she and her wife are activists for the LGBTQ+ community, talked about collecting food to distribute in late November with the help of the local Teamsters. Several nonprofits shared what they’re doing. Even though not all of them offer food, they offer other items, and money that would otherwise be spent on those items, they said, could then be spent on food. They heard how a coordinated, collaborative effort could maximize their impact.
One attendee, 64-year-old Brian Paschall, talked about what it's like to not be able to afford enough food. Paschall said he's a SNAP recipient — he gets $80 a month as well as a $333 social security payment. He said he's "appalled at what is going on in our nation with this SNAP cutback." He said his SNAP benefits already aren't going as far as they used to, and he's down to eating one meal a day to make it through the month.
There were lots of suggestions about how best to help people, including laminating lists of resources to put in public places where more people can see them. People talked about barriers to getting help, like transportation and food pantry hours. Someone pointed out that distribution of immigration documents is taking longer so more people will fall into the undocumented category and will be reluctant to ask for help. Someone else pointed out that those with developmental disabilities in the middle of the state rely on government assistance and can't drive. Another person pointed out that homeschool families don't have access to food that public school families do.
The meeting ended with a plan to have an up-to-date central database created by OACAC where community members can find resources. Anyone offering aid can contact the nonprofit to be added.
"I hope tomorrow, you know, this ends, and...we don't have to continue this conversation," said Skylar Walker. "But the truth is, we'll always have to continue this conversation. Who knows when we might be back in this exact situation?"
She said she hopes that, by having community conversations, they'll have built a framework so they don't have to come up with one every time something like this happens.
