Damien's Food Pantry braces for SNAP cuts

Staff and volunteers at Damien's Food Pantry are asking for donations of time, food and money in anticipation of a surge in demand as early as this weekend.

With continued federal food assistance caught up in the government shutdown and accompanying political battles, Damien's Executive Direction Rachel Resendes predicts a 40% increase in the number of people relying on the food pantry.

“Food should always be something that’s there in the United States. Nobody should be worrying that they’re not going to be able to get by, let alone veterans and the elderly,” Resendes said. “Children should not be going to school right now worrying about getting their next meal.”

Due to the four-week long government shutdown, the money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as SNAP, will run out for the first time ever. According to state statistics, this will leave 4,762 households, or 20% of Wareham without the program’s benefits.

The program allows people to purchase food using an EBT card as well as supply people with a number of resources including free nutrition education classes and resources and free meals in schools.

“Our phone has been ringing pretty much constantly…it seems that a lot of people are trying to get ahead,” Resendes said. “We’ve noticed an increase in the number of military families coming in and hopefully we can have enough food for it.”

In order to account for the increase in people, Resendes said Damien’s is increasing hours, applying for extra grants and reaching out to donors, like the MassWildlife’s Hunter’s Share the Harvest program which allows hunters to donate venison they’ve harvested.

“We’re just looking to different areas to get things we normally didn’t have to make sure we can increase what we need to increase,” she said.

Damien’s receives their food from the Greater Boston Food Bank and from grocery stores such as Shaw's, Stop and Shop and Walmart which federal cuts impacted earlier this year. Due to the cuts Damien’s is receiving 3,500 less pounds of food this year.

Resendes is a Fall River resident and said she has already seen people lining the streets outside of food pantries there to get ahead of the cuts, which she said she is trying to avoid.

“We have the advantage with Damien’s that we can control the environment while people are with us so that we can maximize what people are getting and maximize the number of people we are giving it to,” she said.

Resendes is also asking people to donate and volunteer as they can.

“We need a lot of hands on deck and we’re increasing our Tuesday hours,” she said.