BELTON, Texas (KXXV) — Demand at local food pantries continues to grow as millions of Americans struggle with uncertainty about their benefits.
25 News spoke with some of our neighbors relying on food pantries because of the shutdown's impact on their household budgets.
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"How are we going to feed the kids? I mean, it's the holidays," said Farrah, a resident who visits food pantries regularly.
For millions of Americans like Farrah, the end of the month brings concern about where their next meal will come from.
"They cut off the SNAP benefits and the toddlers running around, my grandbabies, they don't even have food to eat," Farrah said.
The government shutdown has contributed to an increase in demand at food pantries across Texas like Helping Hands Ministry in Belton. Farrah tells 25 News she visits the pantry three times a month to feed her family, and she says the lines have gotten much longer recently.
"Usually, you can come in line isn't long. You can just go straight through it, but last time I went to the food pantry last week, I noticed that I got there when they opened and the line was really long," Farrah said.
"I came an hour earlier and it was still long, really long. In fact that we waited like almost an hour," she said.
The pantry's executive director, Alicia Jallah, says they served 243 households on Monday alone; 20 of those were families seeking help for the first time.
"So a lot of our new households that are coming through, we've seen a lot of active duty military, military spouses coming in saying that they need assistance now and lots of people too just worried about their SNAP benefits running out or not getting them in November and needing to utilize us," Jallah said.
If you come for food, the pantry recommends bringing an ID but says it's not required.
"Because we are seeing more people. There's definitely more of a wait than like usually it is, so bring a little bit of patience with you," Jallah said.
Helping Hands Ministry is looking for donations to keep up with the demand, as well as volunteers.
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