Jason Webb receives roughly $300 each month in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits that he splits between his family and his elderly mother living by herself.
The aid supplements his income from a part-time restaurant job that he uses to help put food on his family’s tables, Webb said.
The 40-year-old man was among about 600 people who arrived at the Rich Township Food Pantry Thursday afternoon for its twice-weekly distribution. The crowd was larger because SNAP recipients are set to lose their benefits in November during the current federal government shutdown, local officials said.
“I have no plans,” said Webb, about getting more assistance, as he shook his head. “I’m still thinking about it.”
Rich Township Food Pantry usually serves 80 to 100 people every distribution day, said Riette Woods, the pantry coordinator.
On Thursday, Woods said staff and volunteers prepared extra food bags because of the increased demand for food.
She added that the Richton Park pantry also is looking to open more days of the week.
Inside the pantry, paper and blue cloth bags filled with groceries to the brim lined tables and shelves, alongside milk cartons, meat, eggs and baked goods.
Several shopping carts were full of other bags containing vegetables and fruit. Staff and volunteers zipped between cars to put the bags into trunks and back seats.
Jane Donovan, 71, of Richton Park, said she depends on SNAP benefits to feed her family, even though her $80 in benefits is a drop in the bucket. She said she already visits three to four food pantries each month to fill the gap but is now looking for more places to get help.
Rich Township Supervisor Calvin Jordan said Thursday’s distribution will serve as an assessment of the need for food in the community. He said he already is coordinating with other municipal and community leaders to fill the gap if SNAP goes away.
“You gotta feed people, that’s serious,” Jordan said. “If you look here, you see people, they drive, they get here early, they spend money on gas. We got to be able to help.”
Cook County Commissioner Kisha McCaskill, who joined Jordan at the pantry, said she and other commissioners are making food security a top priority and working to identify areas of need across the county, though “funds will be as tight as food.”
“We need to be very realistic about it, because some of these people don’t know where their next meal is going to come from,” McCaskill said. “We need all our leadership, our clergy, our school districts to get in sync and make sure that no one goes home hungry.”
The food distribution event comes as the spar over SNAP funding continues. Congress appears unlikely to reach a legislative solution before Saturday, while the Trump administration is locked in a legal battle with a coalition of Democratic-led states over the use of contingency funding to pay for SNAP during the shutdown.
McCaskill on Thursday called on President Donald Trump and lawmakers in Washington for a quick resolution of the impending crisis.
“We appeal to the president because we know that it’s a matter of his authority to say yes or no,” McCaskill said. “We can make all the noise we want, but until we come together in a concerted effort and put things forward, nothing is going to change.”