Mississippi charities face looming challenges with SNAP suspension: 'We're figuring it out as we go'

In the meantime, food pantries and community kitchens in Mississippi and the rest of the Gulf South are now having to serve regulars andpeople newly in need of assistance.

Jill Buckley, executive director of Stewpot in Jackson, said they're still figuring out what they're going to do next month. 

"With more demand, we'll have to figure out how to meet that capacity," she said. Their food bank is open Monday through Thursday, with their community kitchen open seven days a week. 

An increased demand in services means they'll need not only more food, but more staff and volunteers. And, their problems won't end with government services returning.

"Any disruption is going to have a ripple effect," Buckley said in her office in Jackson, upstairs from where people were lined up at Stewpot's community kitchen. "It might take families weeks, really, to get back to some kind of equilibrium. "

She said that Stewpot plans to work with other organizations to meet needs and make the right referrals, because a single group can't do it all.

Oleta Fitzgerald, southern regional office director for the Children's Defense Fund, echoed those sentiments.

"We're gonna have to have systems in place to try to keep people connected to the resources that they need — for not only food, but for health care and housing," she said. 

Coordination is important even when there isn't the chaos of a government shutdown. Cassandra Mobley, interim CEO and COO of Mississippi Food Network, said that's part of working with over 400 partner food banks and charities across 56 Mississippi counties. 

"We're going to provide additional support to these partners as they are trying to serve their communities," she told MPB News. "We're just figuring it out as we go a little bit."

It's not just charities stepping up while the government is shut down. 

DoorDash, for example, launched an initiative over the weekend to waive fees in November for the over 300 food banks and pantries it partners with for food deliveries.  

It's also waiving delivery and service fees for 300,000 grocery orders for SNAP beneficiaries.

"We know this is a stopgap, not a solution, but doing nothing simply isn't an option," said Max Rettig, DoorDash's vice president and global head of public policy, in a statement.

If you've got a SNAP or EBT card linked to your DoorDash account, you can have those fees waived on one order at select locations. 

Local governments are also intervening. In Jackson, Mayor John Horne announced that the city is allocating $150,000 to help provide meals through Mississippi Food Network and the Community Foundation for Mississippi for Hinds County residents affected by a lack of access to SNAP. 

"For our community, that means that $6.5 million in monthly benefits and resources for families facing food insecurity will vanish — for the average family in Hinds County, that amounts to $180 a month," Horne said at a press conference on Friday. 

"But this is Jackson. When a neighbor is in need, we rally."

At that same conference, Juanita Sims Doty, as liaison to the Mayor's office for the National Folk Festival, announced that folks can donate nonperishable items at the festival.

"These items can be contributed to the Mississippi Food Network and others to be distributed to citizens across the city of Jackson," Doty said. 

Guest services booths across the festival will now include drop-off bins for those items. The Jackson Fire Department will help manage the effort, picking up and distributing food.

And, they're not just accepting donations: Doty said that the festival also needs volunteers to help with that emergency response.

For Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, the percentage of the total population receiving SNAP ranges from roughly 13 to 18%, with Louisiana having the highest percentage. 

Louisiana is also the only state that has allocated state money for SNAP beneficiaries. 

Lindsay Hendrix, chief impact officer of Second Harvest Food Bank in Louisiana, said that kind of support can make all the difference for nonprofits. 

"I can't even imagine the level of panic and my friends with Mississippi Food Network in Jackson, and our counterparts in Alabama, were feeling because there are not enough resources to fill in that gap," she said. "They just do not exist: for every meal, a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine."

Ultimately, Mississippi charities say they need help from Mississippians. Extra Table Feeds, a food bank based in Hattiesburg, is asking for more donations to meet growing needs in the state. 

“When others can’t feed because of red tape, we can — and we do,” said executive director Martha Allen Price in a statement. “We are not government subsidized. We don’t wait on funding cycles or approvals. Every dollar donated to Extra Table buys healthy food, and 100% goes directly to feeding people across Mississippi.”

In Jackson, Mayor Horne encouraged people to donate to both Mississippi Food Network and Community Foundation for Mississippi. 

The latter also recently expanded its Helping Friends and Neighbors Fund to now use donations to help local food nonprofits. 

The Mississippi Department of Health has more resources on its website to find food banks near you.