South Orange and Maplewood leaders are working overtime to provide information and resources to families that will be affected by a delay and potential cutoff in federal food assistance starting November 1.
Although two federal judges have ruled that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits — otherwise known as SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , CNN reports that millions of Americans “could still face delays to their benefits, which were scheduled to be distributed tomorrow [November 1] but disrupted by the government shutdown.” The emergency funds may also not last through the month.
“We have been working with both towns and various organizations throughout South Orange and Maplewood anticipating this stop of funding,” said Supt. of Schools Jason Bing on October 30. “So right now, and I want to make sure we get this out, we’re sending letters out this week, the following is happening: food shopping by Wednesday — Cougar Cares will be doing that, putting together care packages. We’re giving out Walmart gift cards to our SNAP kids and SNAP families. We’re estimating that to be anywhere from 265 to around 300 [families]. … We’ve reached out to Stop & Shop, and they’ll be helping us out with additional gift cards. We have a account now with Rent Party. It is a donation platform, and that will be in the letters tomorrow going out, so you can donate to help through Rent Party.”
“We are having school-wide events as well” to raise funds, said Bing. Plus, “we are reminding folks that, if you are eligible for free and reduced lunch and are receiving SNAP, please reach out to us or reach out to your municipality. We are working very close with the Health Department.” Bing gave a “big shout out” to South Orange Maplewood Health Official Candice Davenport. “We’re having our interns make calls to families to make sure they’re okay and see what they need. We are also determining who is eligible for free lunch and breakfast and making sure that’s available to our students.”
Bing said that school district officials would be meeting with municipal partners in Maplewood and South Orange on Monday, November 3 “to again, synthesize all of our energies and work. So we’ll have more information on that moving forward. We wanna make sure that our families are taken care of.”
Meanwhile, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. announced a series of localized food distribution hubs. “We have been working with the Community FoodBank, MEND and Toni’s Kitchen and our municipal partners to develop a coordinated response,” said DiVincenzo. Residents who need assistance may also reach out to local food pantries. A list of food pantries can be found at http://www.fhecessex.org/.
Robin Peacock, the Executive Director of the MEND Hunger Relief Network who has been sounding the alert about the erosion of federral food assistance since last summer, told Village Green, “We’re ready. We’re working through partners.
We’re buying more food. We’re working on getting more fresh food to the pantries. But the charitable food system cannot absorb all of this. SNAP works and it’s a great program and it puts money in the community and it puts money in grocery stores and it allows people choice. There’s so many good things about it.”
Peacock said that food pantries are not a long-term solution: “The system will be extremely overtaxed.”
Meanwhile, community members who want to help can purchase gift cards for MEND clients can visit: https://givebutter.com/GiftCardsForYourNeighbors
Peacock noted that money being released by the state of NJ “will help because that will allow basically the Community Food Bank of New Jersey for this area to deploy more food. But that’s money that’s already been designated. It’s accelerating money that was already in the budget.”
Peacock urged people to volunteer and contribute because, even with the judges’ rulings, loading the funds onto the EBT cards could take a week or more.
“There’s going to be the need for charitable food to step up in a big way.” Peacock commended the SOMA community: “We have gotten a lot of donations in the last couple days.”
“We’ve been talking to the pantry leaders, they’re definitely seeing increases” in clients, said Peacock. “There’s definitely a lot more fear and people are shifting to scarcity mindset now, which means it’s just a lot more stress. It’s just a lot more stress for the community.”
