As the calendar rolled from October to November over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans found themselves without food stamp benefits.
Hundreds of cars lined up outside of the Jellico High School in Campbell County on Saturday morning, despite temperatures dropping into the low 30s.
They’re here for free groceries handed out by volunteers organized by the non-profit Mission of Hope. As families drive past pallets stacked with canned goods, rice, pasta, peanut butter, tortillas, soup and fresh produce, the volunteers load up their cars with a little bit of everything.
Local resident Karri Walden arrived early to get a good spot in line.
“A lot of people here come to keep from starving to death,” she said.
Walden says it’s her fifth time making use of the Jellico food drive, which takes place once a year in this distressed community where household income averages just above the federal poverty line. About 30% of people in the area rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for groceries.
“We don't live in a neighborhood that's rich,” Walden said. “This area is pretty much all low income, unless you're a doctor or lawyer or something.”
Two cars ahead of Walden sits Amanda. WUOT News chose to only use her first name to protect her privacy. She lives in Whitley County, Kentucky, and relies on SNAP benefits for groceries each month.
A couple of weeks ago, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services told her she wouldn’t get her benefits for November due to the federal government shutdown.
“It's just hard now, since we don't really know if we're going to get them or not,” she said. "I still don't know if we're going to. I don't have high hopes at this point. [We] just got to do what we got to do to get food for the month and see where it goes.”
In East Tennessee, over 230,000 people make use of around $48 million in SNAP benefits each month to buy food for their families. On November 1, many didn’t receive their benefits for the month after a lapse in funding caused by the ongoing federal government shutdown.
State Senator Heidi Campbell, a Democrat of Nashville, calls it a crisis.
“That means millions fewer meals for families, especially in rural communities that really rely most on this support,” she said. “Right now, there's just no excuse for not supporting people through this.”
Campbell has joined a growing group of bipartisan state legislators calling on Governor Bill Lee to release money from the state’s $2 billion emergency fund to provide SNAP funds to Tennesseans, which would cost about $150 million for the month of November.
On Thursday, Senator Paul Bailey, a Republican of Sparta, broke with the state’s GOP to publicly call on Lee to “find a way” to prevent Tennesseans from losing access to SNAP in November.
“This is a program that has been in place for many, many years, and we just can't cut off funding for people that are depending on this program,” Bailey said. “And we have to make sure that we find a way to make sure that these individuals – these Tennesseans – have an opportunity to have a good meal every day.”
Lee has said he will not dip into the rainy day fund, as some Democrats have requested, citing technology barriers. The state would have to pay its electronic bank transfer (EBT) card provider to design new software which could funnel state funds into a program typically administered by the federal government. Bailey says it would take weeks, and cost the state a significant amount of money. To him, it’s a small price to pay, however.
“I still say these are the most vulnerable citizens among us, and that even if it costs us extra money to try to provide that benefit to those individuals, we as a state should do that,” Bailey said.
In the absence of financial aid, Lee’s office has created a temporary website pointing people to food pantries.
East Tennessee is home to well over 100 food banks in various counties. Over 160 of them are partnered with the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee, which helped provide food to the Mission of Hope food drive in Jellico over the weekend.
Late last week, Second Harvest’s warehouse in Maryville was filled with volunteers who were busy packing boxes and loading pallets with canned foods and fresh produce to help meet higher demand during the SNAP outage.
“We don't look at it as being about politics or about this or that,” said spokesperson Marvin Figgins. “We look at it about people that need help, and we’re the organization that's going to help them and that remains dedicated to helping them.”
Back in Jellico, Amanda gets her car loaded up with groceries. She’s grateful, but not sure how long they’ll last. She says she’s tired of politicians bickering over a program so many Americans rely on.
“Be more understanding and just don’t let this happen,” she said. “Just give the people what they need, no matter what. I think that would be the humane thing to do. I think it would be better if everybody was more helpful, rather than trying to take everything away all the time.”
Earlier today President Donald Trump announced he would comply with a federal judge’s Friday ruling that he must use emergency funds to pay SNAP benefits. He said he’ll give households half of what they normally receive for the month of November. Until the shutdown ends, many families in East Tennessee will have to lean on charities to make up the difference.
