Federal Dysfunction Worsening Hunger
Food bank seeing record surge in people seeking assistance.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Email Martin
Tonight’s election winners get a couple of months to prepare to assume power in January. From the local level up to the governor’s office, the winners will likely be spending that time coming to terms with the economic disruption being created by a federal government that has ceased working.
No where is this more evident than with food insecurity issues.
Two forces are pushing Virginia’s food banks to absorb ever-higher numbers of people seeking assistance.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is the first. For several weeks local authorities have been warning SNAP recipients that benefits could be delayed or stopped should the shutdown extend to November 1. In response, Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin stood up the Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance (VENA) to payout benefits to Virginia SNAP benefits as a stopgap until the federal government resumes payments.
Meanwhile, a federal judge has ordered the administration to pay SNAP benefits. Today, however, Trump said no payments would be made until the shutdown ends even as his press secretary said the administration would follow the court order.
This has caused confusion over what funds, and from which source, will begin to flow.
To this confusion is added the reality of lost federal paychecks.
Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank CEO Dan Maher told the Advance today that the food bank is “seeing … an influx of furloughed federal workers seeking food assistance.”
Turnout for food distributions, according to Maher, are running “50 - 100 percent higher than a month ago and our surveying shows more than 50 percent indicate it is their first time receiving assistance.”
Though the food bank doesn’t ask those seeing assistance if they are furloughed federal workers, “many volunteer the information and the stats about newcomers probably means there is a high correlation between the shutdown and our spike in turnout for aid,” Maher said.
Delivering
While the government shutdown is putting unprecedented pressure on the food safety network in our region and across the state, ending the shutdown won’t end the inflation that has been intensifying since COVID and forcing more families to turn to the food bank.
Voters went for Donald Trump in 2024 because of concerns over inflation.
Those concerns remain and are now being amplified.
The most-recent Emerson College poll on the Virginia governor’s race makes this clear. Asked to name their top issues, those surveyed said: the economy (39%), followed by threats to democracy (16%), healthcare (10%), immigration (9%), education (7%), and housing affordability (6%).
Those who win tonight will face immediate pressure to shore up supports for Virginians who are newly hurting because of federal inaction, as well as those who’ve been struggling since COVID.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”