{"id":58837,"date":"2025-11-03T14:46:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=58837"},"modified":"2025-11-03T14:46:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T19:46:18","slug":"food-pantries-feel-impact-amid-snap-benefit-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/11\/03\/food-pantries-feel-impact-amid-snap-benefit-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"Food pantries feel impact amid SNAP benefit delays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While two federal judges ruled Friday that the federal government must use emergency funding to partially support the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is still unclear when millions of families will receive their benefits for November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, local food pantries are already feeling the strain of increased demand. Bibleway Resource Center<\/a> in Auburndale feeds about 500 people across Polk County each week. Food giveaways typically begin with prayer outside the center, but on Friday, Latesa Faison, who oversees the pantry, said it felt like God heard every word.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cGod has blessed our two fish and five loaves this morning and stretched their food a lot longer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past four years, Faison said she and volunteers have leaned on their faith and the community for donations. She said this time is no different as many families worry about losing their SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been getting calls, like 20 to 30 calls a day,\u201d Faison said. \u201cBut I can only take in so many to be able to provide for the end of the week for people, but we try to put peanut butter, jelly, bread \u2014 whatever it takes to make a meal for the people so it\u2019s going to get worse before it gets better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resident Isidro Perales said he\u2019s grateful the food pantry can give his family what it can. He said his mother recently got sick, and he doesn\u2019t know how she\u2019ll manage without assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little worrisome because if she doesn\u2019t need it, she won\u2019t take it. She doesn\u2019t like to take anything from anyone who might need the help. But as times are getting harder, she\u2019s been having to need it,\u201d Perales said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Census Bureau<\/a>, nearly 15% of Polk County families depend on SNAP benefits \u2014 the highest percentage in the Bay Area. Of the recipients, studies show that more than 40% are children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faison plans to do her best to help fill the gap, but said she can\u2019t do it alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur community can help by coming together, doing a food drive,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can drop off peanut butter and jelly here, or canned goods, and that can help us make meals for the people that come constantly needing food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, she\u2019s holding on to her belief that God will provide \u2014 something she says has carried the center through time and time again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about how you can help support Bibleway Resource Center, visit the pantry\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While two federal judges ruled Friday that the federal government must use emergency funding to partially support the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is still unclear when millions of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTFcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMTAwLndlYnA_Zml0PTY0NSUyQzQ3MiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZvb2QgcGFudHJpZXMgZmVlbCBpbXBhY3QgYW1pZCBTTkFQIGJlbmVmaXQgZGVsYXlzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.SgUbRIBfyh16FcE-vLznd_Ny2yJHX26s10XkCcA9HkUMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":58838,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-100.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[12509],"class_list":["post-58837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-food-pantries-feel-impact-amid-snap-benefit-delays"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58839,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58837\/revisions\/58839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}