Volunteers rushed to unload sliced meats, cheeses, fresh produce and hefty bags of potatoes before opening the doors of the Sister Visitor Center food bank in Louisville on Thursday.
The Catholic Charities associated pantry served 22,000 people last year. On the drizzly Thursday morning, clients are already wrapping around the building, waiting for the 10 a.m. opening -- days ahead of a fiscal cliff suspending food assistance through the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
Angel, who declined to give her last name, waited outside the grocery store-like pantry ahead of opening. She’s only been twice before, using it to bolster the funds she gets through SNAP. But on Thursday, Angel was loading up. She found out a couple days ago about the benefits lapse and said she’s trying to think ahead.
“I’m not gonna be able to buy food this month, so I’m going to have to depend on food pantries,” she said. “What about the food pantries? Everyone’s gonna be dependent on them and this is the worst time of year to do it.”
The Trump administration told states in October that they would not be sending them SNAP funds for next month because of the federal government shutdown.
Around 600,000 Kentuckians will be facing the same difficult decisions as Angel starting Nov. 1. That’s roughly one in eight Kentuckians. A couple states are trying to fill in the gaps, but Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear said state coffers don’t have the funding flexibility. The cost to sustain the SNAP program in Kentucky for one month is more than $100 million dollars. Beshear said the Trump administration has an obligation to continue funding SNAP.
“They can fund SNAP during the government shutdown. They should fund SNAP during the government shutdown. Whether people have enough to eat should not be a prop for negotiating,” Beshear said.
He and 25 other Democratic officials across the country are suing the administration over the funding lapse. They say the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does have the money in contingency funds and is illegally withholding them to force Congress’s hand.
In a memo, the USDA said it would be unlawful for them to move money around without a new appropriation from Congress — which would require Democrats and Republicans to come to an agreement on a budget.
“A big chunk of Americans are going to be losing a very very important benefit and we can talk legalistics and can we move this money and is that $5 billion available and is it not but all it takes is a yes on a continuing resolution,” said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins on CNN.
Without federal assistance to help Kentuckians fill their pantries, food banks across the state are bracing for a surge in clients and calling on their communities for support. You can find a list of food pantries at the bottom of this story.
Food pantries worry people will go hungry
An email notice obtained by Kentucky Public Radio informed Kentucky SNAP recipients on Monday that their benefits may be affected, less than a week before the November 1st deadline.
Out in Floyd County in southeastern Kentucky, Gail Goble runs the Hand in Hand Ministries in the small community of Auxier. Goble says she keeps watching the news, hoping and praying something will change.
“Every day you keep watching to see if there's been any change, and there, and there hasn't been,” she said.
KPR first spoke with Goble earlier this year, when Congress was considering cutting SNAP through the One Big Beautiful Bill. She said they were already stretched to full capacity then. That was before the bill passed in July.
She’s even more worried now. Goble said she’s telling clients that the pantry will be there, doing the “best we can.”
“That's all we can do. I'm getting really nervous because I know a lot of people are going to be without food,” Goble said.
Donna Grayson runs the food pantry at Lending a Helping Hand ministry in rural northeastern Lewis County, which can serve as many as 500 people leading up to the holidays.
“We will not let them go hungry. I mean, we'll help until we can't help them no more,” Grayson said.
For a while, there were three other food pantries operating in the county, she said. Now there’s only one other. Grayson says the amount of government commodities that are supplied to the pantry has also decreased. It means relying more and more on the community for monetary and food donations. She knows the need will only grow if SNAP funding lapses.
“God always provides one way or the other. And I'm not saying I don't worry, or I don't have that little thing in the back of my mind: 'Oh, what if we run our food?' Because I still do. But like I said, God always comes through,” she said.
Kentuckians across the state rely on SNAP
Some counties in Kentucky have a much higher percentage of people reliant on SNAP, especially in and around the Appalachian region. In McCreary County, roughly two in five households receive SNAP benefits.
Barbara Duncan with Integrated Community Ministries in Stearns said the food bank is already stretched thin as price pressures drive more people in her community to seek help. Normally, they supplement SNAP, providing food when benefits run out.
“Now we're going to have to try to provide four weeks worth of food,” Duncan said.
Maybe they’ll be able to manage to keep up with demand for a little while, but not for long, she said.
A half hour down the road, The McCreary Christian Care Center’s Sue Singleton says in the 25 years she’s been doing this work, she’s never agonized so much about how she’s going to feed her neighbors.
“I don't think we've ever had this, this urgency, and worried about where food's going to come from and and, you know, how we're going to feed people,” Singleton said.
Over in western Kentucky, Dalla Emerson is the director of Food Service Operations at Bowling Green Independent School District. Hundreds of thousands of Kentucky kids benefit from SNAP.
While school lunches are still funded, Emerson says they’re keeping an eye out for kids who may go hungry after the school day ends or over the weekend. She said many people turn to schools in times of crisis as hubs for the community, and they do their best.
“In a time like this, we need answers from the people making the decisions for us, which is the elected officials,” Emerson said.
Back in Louisville, Thomas Lacy is standing in line on that rainy Thursday morning, waiting for his turn inside the food pantry. Lacy, a veteran, says he hopes to stock up at the Sister Visitor Center because he doesn’t know what he’ll do otherwise.
“I’m in line like everybody else. It’s gonna be bad out here. It’s gonna get real bad,” Lacy said.
Food banks are relying on community support
Many of the food banks KPR spoke with said community donations are needed to carry them through the surge they’re expecting.
“We want to make sure that nobody goes hungry. Nobody should have to go through that. And we have seen a tremendous outpouring of response,” said Linnette Lowe, president of The Association of Community Ministries, representing 13 that cover Metro Louisville. “I’m very hopeful that we will be able to sustain that response as long as it’s needed.
The Association of Community Ministries put out a call Thursday for food and monetary donations to support their work in food, utility and housing assistance. See a list of their ministries below:
- Central Louisville Community Ministries – Drop off food at 809 S 4th Street on Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
- Eastern Area Community Ministries – Drop off food at 9104 Westport Road on Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Fern Creek/Highview United Ministries – Drop off food at 9300 Beulah Church Road on Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- Highlands Community Ministries – Drop off food at 1228 E Breckinridge St on Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Jeffersontown Area Ministries – Drop off food at 10617 Taylorsville Road on Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Ministries United South Central Louisville (MUSCL) – Drop off food at 1207 Hart Avenue on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
- Shively Area Ministries – Drop off food at 4415 Dixie Highway on Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- South Louisville Community Ministries – Drop off food at 415 ½ W Ashland Ave on Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Southwest Community Ministries – Drop off food at 8504 Terry Road on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- St. Matthews Area Ministries – Drop off food at 319 Browns Lane on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- United Crescent Hill Ministries – Drop off food at 150 State Street on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- West Louisville Community Ministry – Drop off food at 3146 W Broadway on Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m
- Sister Visitor Center – Drop off food at 2235 W Market Street Mon. - Fri. 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
The city also maintains a list of locations where people in need can find meals throughout the day and locations for finding groceries. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg says the city is collecting food donations for Dare to Care at these events:
- Boo at the Zoo – Drop off food for Dare to Care from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Louisville Zoo, 1100 Trevilian Way.
- Thru the Ville 5K – Drop off food for Dare to Care from 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1, at 2550 S. Floyd St.
- Throo the Boo 2025 – Drop off food for Dare to Care from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Louisville Zoo.
Numerous organizations across the city provide opportunities for individuals to get groceries or a hot meal. Here are a few of them:
