The line was long at Lighthouse Food Rescue and Distribution in San Jose. The organization says they receive many phone calls daily from people who are asking about how and where they can get food.
The nonprofit provides food five days a week and recently has seen a rise in the number of people lining up.
“Since everything going on with the SNAP benefits, we’ve seen a huge surge and just lines down the block,” said Jessica Pangelina, secretary of the Lighthouse Food Rescue & Distribution.
More and more phone calls have also been coming in.
“A lot of families, people calling with families with kids, just worried about getting here on time, because people do start lining up pretty early,” Pangelina said.
People with SNAP benefits still haven’t received their payments for November. The Trump administration had agreed to partially fund the program this month by using contingency funds – but said that it could take weeks.
Then a federal judge Thursday ordered the Trump administration to deliver SNAP payments in full to states by Friday. The administration later filed a notice saying they intend to appeal against the ruling.
While taking questions during a dinner with leaders of central Asian countries, President Trump deferred to Vice President JD Vance when asked about Thursday court’s ruling.
“In the midst of a shutdown, we can’t have a federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation,” Vance said.
This lapse in SNAP benefits is already having impacts on families whose electronic benefits cards were supposed to be reloaded the first week of this month.
Tony and Alba’s Pizza and Pasta are one of the restaurants that have started offering free kids meals and discounts for parents with snap cards at the end of October.
They’ve served more than 200 meals to families with SNAP cards in the last two weeks.
“I had one parent, she was here yesterday and then she came back today to get a meal for her son, she said I don’t have any money, I said don’t worry, this is what we will help take care of, what would you like,” said Diana Vallorz, co-owner of Tony and Alba’s Pizza and Pasta.
But they often think about where they’ll get their next meal after they leave.
“They’re getting a meal from us, and right now they don’t have any money so what do they do tomorrow, what do they do this weekend where they don’t get a breakfast and a lunch from school, that’s the hardest part for us,” said Albert Vallorz, co-owner of Tony and Alba’s Pizza and Pasta.
Jocelyn Moran
Source link