SNAP benefits delayed: Arizona food aid groups see surge in need

In the first week of anxious uncertainty over access to federal food aid, Southern Arizona food banks and mutual aid groups have jumped into action to stem a tide of hunger hitting already-vulnerable local communities.

Amid the ongoing government shutdown, the Trump administration was ordered by two judges to partially fund SNAP, the nation’s largest food aid program, following efforts by Democratic state attorneys general or governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia to challenge the pause. That included Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.

The government said there is an emergency fund that has about $4.65 billion to cover about half of normal benefits, the Associated Press reported.

Still, with November payments delayed for many people, and as it's not clear when or how much people will receive, making sure people are fed has fallen to local institutions. 

Mutual aid groups that work with homeless communities, long used to filling gaps in food access, have come together to circulate a flyer laying out places people can get a meal every day of the week and working with local businesses to plan food and gift card drives.  

Liz Casey, with Community Care Tucson, said they have seen more people with kids coming out to the dinner they serve Wednesday night at Armory Park. 

“We're working on hopefully getting individuals to start their own neighborhood mini distributions so that places like the community food bank aren’t completely overwhelmed because that’s one of our fears,” Casey said.  

Tucson Food Share offers grocery hours three days a week, but anyone who lives within six miles of Grant and Stone can also request a delivery here. 

The uncertainty over food aid comes at a time when other types of supports are falling by the wayside. Nonprofits have seen major cuts in federal funding, and the federal government is planning to cut more than half of the funding for a homeless housing program, while state aid in a variety of areas has taken a hit following the implementation of a flat tax in 2023. 

Mayor Regina Romero, speaking last week, said no one would be turned away from food but that it would undoubtedly strain the system. “It's important that we all understand that the more families and individuals that need food from our local food banks, the less food that there is available,” she said. “We are already limping, right?”

Gov. Katie Hobbs said she will be deploying $1.8 million in COVID-19 emergency funds to help food banks meet an increase in need, as well as programs that help people get fresh food at farmers markets. 

On Tuesday, the Pima County Board of Supervisors planned to weigh sending $600,000 to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona and $200,000 to the Sahuarita Food Bank & Community Resource Center to meet hardship due to the federal government shutdown. The board delayed that decision, moving to discuss the food bank funding again in December. They did vote to provide $399,440 in interim funding for the Woman, Infant and Children (WIC) Program during the ongoing shutdown.

Among the initiatives Tucson is implementing is opening up 0% loans for businesses stepping up to feed hungry Tucsonans, Romero said. “Local governments will plan to make sure that there’s plenty to go around in terms of food. We will find a way.” 

“Our rural communities get the the leftovers”

On Saturday, Carolina Cortez saw a three-fold increase in pre-orders for this month's Borderlands' Produce On Wheels With-Out Waste event in Thatcher. 

“Usually we only see about 35 pre-order boxes that are going to go to seniors and … to different locations to people with disabilities,” she said. “On Saturday we had 98 boxes that were pre-sold. That was $1,678 coming out of that amount of produce.”

Cortez is a community health worker for the Southeast Arizona Health Education Center, SEAHEC, and focuses her outreach on rural Graham and Greenlee counties. She said 510 people showed up for the food drive event.

“The lack of food right now is very noticeable in Graham County and in Greenlee County. There's a lot of people that are coming out to the food pantries that are seeking help,” Cortez said.

The government shutdown and threats to SNAP benefits has people in rural communities worried and seeking help elsewhere.

“Honestly the lack of support that they felt from the government made them scared. So they started preparing before time,” Cortez said. 

Cuts like this exacerbate issues rural Arizona communities already face when trying to access food on low income.

“In our rural communities, the food banks and food pantries already receive less food than we do in urban settings,” Brenda Sánchez, SEAHEC executive director, said. “[And] the produce and food that is usually delivered in our rural communities is closer to being expired. It's a longer trajectory that this food has to go through, so they already have a shorter shelf life.”

Sánchez and Cortez say they expect the combination of food shortages and food insecurity to have long-lasting effects that extend beyond the government shutdown, even with the governor’s recently announced $1.8 million in assistance.

“Our smaller rural communities are going to get the remains of whatever the larger counties and larger cities don't get. So, I mean, will it help the community? 100%. But will it really solve the problem and will we actually see people not go hungry? I want to hope that I'm wrong, but I mean historically our rural communities get the leftovers,” Sánchez said. 

“Praying this will change”

At the Flowing Wells Family Resource Center, rugged four-wheeled gray wagons made their way into the parking lot where families emptied beans, rice, lentils, frozen food packages and more into their trunks.

The urgency began late last week before benefits were not renewed.

The center, which typically serves nine families in a week, saw eight by 11 a.m. on Friday.

“We’re just going to take it day-by-day,” said Family Resource Coordinator Martha Molina. “We have not had this kind of situation in front of us before.”

Molina has worked at the center for 27 years and says she does not have an answer for these families right now. The center serves the families of about 5,000 students and 700 employees in the northwest side district.

“I have been praying this will change. But these are tough times and I have been receiving phone calls saying “Do you know if I save some of my food stamps for later, can I use them? But I cannot answer that question,” Molina said.

"It's their life line"

Before a meeting with Pima County representatives on Monday morning, Steven Cota-Robles, who heads up the Tucson Family Food Project, was thinking big-picture.

“We are fighting (food insecurity) very long term by building life skills,” Cota-Robles said. “Families are scrambling to figure out where’s food coming from. It’s their life line. We are looking for ways to help more families.”

Instead of fighting emergency hunger, Cota-Robles said the project provides students at five Tucson-area schools and some at Youth on Their Own with ingredients, recipes and instructional videos to make a meal for their families.

“We are changing our recipes right now to focus on nutrient density. How can we stretch a meal to feed more family members,” he said.

The project currently makes 260 meals a week and the cost is about $4 to make each.

"Looking for solutions"

Monday’s focus for the Tucson Unified School District was a jacket party at its Catalina Family Center where families could grab free winter coats and sweaters.

By 10:30 a.m. Monday, Catalina saw 17 families and served nearly 50 students.

Southern Arizona’s largest school district is prepping for greater needs from its families and from its employees, TUSD officials say.

“We’ve heard the anticipation from our families and from our employees,” Menlo Family Center Program Coordinator Theresa Cesare said. “They are looking for solutions and other sources (for food and other needs).”

As SNAP benefits hang in the balance, the next two months typically bring a greater food need because of the holidays.

“I’m grateful, I’m forever grateful to this place”

As the sound of a morning Catholic Mass drifts through the small yard of Casa Maria Soup Kitchen in South Tucson, Victor De La Cruz keeps a steady eye on who enters the long-standing community food bank and what support they might need. 

He directs people who want a drink of water to orange coolers; those who want to pick up a bagged lunch to a doorway leading to a small room with crates full of bread and produce stacked to the ceiling.

De La Cruz has volunteered at Casa Maria for the past two years, but he also sometimes relies on food aid. This month he is one of the hundreds of thousands of people in Arizona who are set to see a slowdown in access to SNAP.

That means he’ll likely take home some applesauce and single-serve mac and cheese to make the food budget he balances for his daughter and her three children, who live with him, stretch a little farther.

“I’m grateful, I’m forever grateful to this place,” says De La Cruz. “Seeing the amount of food that comes in and the amount of people that it changes, you could say it does something for the soul.” 

Casa Maria has served South Tucson for the past 40 years through its food kitchen but also through neighborhood development programs in the tradition of the Catholic Worker Movement, which looks to the teachings of Jesus to offer support to poor communities.  

One day last week, leading up to the expected SNAP freeze, a higher number of people came by: they gave away 75 family bags, instead of the usual 60. 

Dora Flores came to Casa Maria on Monday morning to pick up a family bag that will help feed her and her niece, who lives with her. 

She has used food aid benefits since 2019, when she was laid off from her job as a customer service clerk with an airline. But this year, when she tried to change the benefits to reflect that her granddaughter would be living with her for the summer, she says she entered a bureaucratic nightmare that ended with her benefits not getting renewed. 

That’s left her relying on food banks like Casa Maria, a reality made extra complicated because Flores doesn’t have a car; a neighbor dropped her off from her home near Mission Garden to Casa Maria in South Tucson on Monday.  

“Everybody’s welcome” at Casa Maria, she said. It doesn’t matter whether you have money or not, whether you’re homeless or not.”

This story was updated with information from Tuesday's Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting.

This article first appeared on AZ Luminaria and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.