JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville City Council will consider two different bills Wednesday to give money to a local food bank amid the government shutdown.
An emergency meeting is planned at City Hall on Wednesday evening to review the two bills that, if approved, would give money to Feeding Northeast Florida.
Recommended Videos
The food bank serves more than 310,000 people, including 95,000 children in Duval County and 11 other counties.
One bill that is being proposed is coming from councilmembers Rahman Johnson, Ju’Coby Pittman and Reggie Gaffney Jr.
On Friday, Johnson said he would be crafting legislation to formally request $2 million in emergency funding to help local families impacted by the disruption of SNAP benefits amid the federal government shutdown.
Johnson proposed some possible sources from which the money could come. One of the options he provided involves getting $1 million from the city’s general fund reserves and $1 million from the city council reserves.
A second piece of legislation is being introduced by Council President Kevin Carrico and Councilmember Ron Salem.
They are proposing sending $200,000 to Feeding Northeast Florida. It would be completely funded through the General Funds Budget Stabilization Reserve.
They said they estimate about 25,000 people would be fed with that kind of funding.
That money could help people like Ross Torrence, who spoke with News4JAX earlier this week.
He is a father of six and a SNAP recipient who has been recently turning to food banks and picking up extra work on top of his other jobs to try and put food on the table for his family.
“I’ve just been running around food pantry to food pantry, going online seeing who’s open, who’s available? What do they have available?” he said.
Feeding Northeast Florida serves people who are food insecure across 12 different counties in Northeast Florida.
Wednesday’s emergency meeting starts at 5 p.m.