ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The St. Johns County Commission voted unanimously at its meeting Tuesday night to spend $200,000 to replenish food pantries at local nonprofits across the county as the federal government shutdown continues.
The ongoing shutdown is affecting people’s paychecks, and at least 10,000 St. Johns County citizens are experiencing a delay in their SNAP benefits.
Holly Ross, vice president of HUGS St. Johns, explained that at least 39% of those are children.
“We have been anticipating that our school pantries will be asking for more benefits, more food coming in this week,” Ross said.
HUGS St. Johns distributes food from its pantry to 21 schools across the county on the first Friday of every month.
Some of the food has been donated to the organization, but they also use funding to buy food to help supply the local needs. They don’t typically take money from the county, but Ross said the funding will allow them to stock up.
“The ability to go out and purchase more food is really critical for us,” said Ross as she gave News4JAX a tour around the facility on Wednesday. “We want students to go to school not worried about where their next meal is coming from.”
County Administrator Joy Andrews submitted the proposal to the commissioners to allocate $200,000 toward local food pantries. The funds were left over from the county’s emergency response fund because the county was not touched by any hurricanes this year.
READ: Memo from Administrator Andrews on temporary response to federal SNAP benefit gap
“We really don’t have the ability to completely replace these programs that (are funded) by the federal government, but we can, in small ways, collaborate with our nonprofits... to find a way to replenish the food pantries of our counties and our nonprofits so at least there is somewhere people can go get food,” Andrews said.
Commissioners also supported Andrews’ recommendation that the county’s utility department suspend disconnections for nonpayment through the end of November.
“I’m worried about taking care of the people we were elected to represent,” Commissioner Sarah Arnold said. “I’ve had so many different people reach out to me from the nonprofit sector, from the faith-based, all the churches, all the youth groups, the school district, the guidance counselors.”
Arnold met News4JAX at HUGS on Wednesday after helping to get the extra funding approved.
“Here we are, Nov. 1, and SNAP has run out. That trickles into free and reduced lunch, and that goes into the Head Start program. It is a domino effect, and I don’t think people realize it,” Arnold said.
Ross said on top of distributing food on Friday, HUGS will be passing out a list of local food pantries compiled by United Way.
“We are going to make sure that the schools we serve on Friday, and all those pantries, receive multiple copies of it so they can share it with their families,” Ross said.
She said anyone with a child in need in St. Johns County can contact their school guidance counselor to receive help from HUGS St. Johns.