Pending Halt of SNAP Benefits a Challenge for Local Charities

Oct 28

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

As the certain slant of autumn light shines across Anderson County’s towns, suburbs and farm fields, a different kind of harvest looms: uncertainty. Nearly 11,000 households—some 22,791 people—are bracing for what might be the abrupt disappearance of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and EBT benefits, familiar lifelines that, come Saturday, could evaporate unless the great machinery of the federal government sputters back to life. It’s a calculation playing out not only in Anderson but across South Carolina, where more than half a million residents find themselves poised on the thin margin between sustenance and want.

In the corridors of local food banks and the pews of community ministries, the mood has shifted to uneasy anticipation. The state’s emergency relief fund, a fragile net woven in response to federal indifference, is now accepting donations from those lucky enough to give, hoping to bolster shelves before the rush. Volunteers are already counting cans and cereal boxes as if prepping for a storm, aware that the “temporary” shutoff may, in time, rewrite the arithmetic of hunger for entire families.

SNAP—still known, colloquially, as food stamps—is scheduled to cease for South Carolina’s low-income households on Saturday, a date as stark as a line on a ledger. For many, it’s an unthinkable adjustment, a monthly negotiation suddenly gone awry. How does one budget for groceries with the decimal point in the red?

Local relief agencies, accustomed to steady if manageable demand, anticipate new faces, new pleas for assistance, especially as the cost of milk and bread continues its gentle, relentless ascent. There’s a rising sense that the county, like the nation, is becoming a place where the only thing more certain than higher grocery prices is the growing reliance on food banks—a system of mutual aid now asked to perform miracles.

AIM, which daily provides more than 45 families with groceries daily, is teaming up with the United Way of Anderson to attempt to meet the challenges of helping families find food and other financial resources.

“We want to be able to make sure that families that receive SNAP benefits don't go hungry,” said Kristi King-Brock, executive director of AIM. The pause in SNAP benefits is expected to put a bigger stress on AIM’s resources.

“We know that we're going to have to find a way to serve more people,” said King-Brock. “We're turning people away right now. So we know we're going to have to increase that number, but we have to have the food or the money to buy the food in order to continue to serve more people.”

As the holidays approach, AIM is also still running the “Trick or Treat so Others can Eat” campaign which provides food for Thanksgiving meals for those in need. This year’s goal is to fill 1,000 boxes for families to use for their holiday meal, though demand is expected to exceed this number.

To find out how to help or to donate visit AIM or the United Way of Anderson County.

Other groups that work with our disadvantaged neighbors, families and friends expects the halt in SNAP benefits to hit some hard.

“It’s a really big deal for the folks that we serve,” said Dave Phillips of Hope Missions of the Upstate.

Phillips said many of those whom they serve depend on the free breakfast at Hope Missions and free lunch at the Anderson Emergency Soup kitchen. The supplemental program helps fill in the gap between those meals.

Phillips and Anderson Salvation Army Maj. Joseph Irvin on Tuesday visited neighborhoods downtown which are likely to be hit hardest by the halt in the SNAP program.

“There are neighborhoods within a mile of downtown Anderson that suffer from extremely deep poverty,” said Phillips. “They have no heat air-conditioning. It’s going to be difficult for them.”

Visit Hope Missions or the Salvation Army of Anderson to find out how to help.

Here are the local organization who provide food assistance in Anderson County:

AIM Food Pantry – 864-226-2273

1206 S Murray Ave

Monday–Friday: 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.

Anderson First SDA Church – 864-359-2256

1001 Osborne Ave

Wednesday: 9:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

Belton Interfaith Ministries Association – 864-338-7797

507 N Main St, Belton

Monday–Thursday: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Clemson Community Care – 864-653-4460