FOOD STAMP CRISIS: COLORADO FAMILIES CUT-OFF FROM GROCERY AID FLOOD PANTRIES

About 100 cars lined up along H Street near Weld Food Bank in Greeley on Monday morning before the organization opened its doors, their drivers and passengers waiting to pick up food on the third day of a lapse in funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to Colorado Newsline.

Staff and volunteers worked through a typical lunch break to meet demand, maneuvering shopping carts full of food to their awaiting recipients. By the end of the day, the food bank served about 2,200 people, according to Weston Edmunds, the food bank’s director of marketing and communications.

Half said they were impacted by the SNAP funding pause.

Approximately 600,000 Coloradans rely on SNAP benefits each month, and advocates expect many of those people to turn to local food banks to get groceries. That will put increased demand on an already stressed system.

“SNAP is a really important safety net. We’re supposed to be the safety net to that safety net, but then it just disappeared,” said Monica Buhlig, the chief impact officer for Food Bank of the Rockies.

[Photo: Colorado Newsline]