LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18)– With paychecks and program funding looming, organizations like God’s Pantry Food Bank are starting to brace themselves for what a continued shutdown will mean for their services.
“I am very hopeful that this is going to end soon,” said God’s Pantry Food Bank Donor Relationship & Communications Director Rebecca Wallace.
About a third of God’s Pantry Food Bank’s supply comes from the USDA, a government-funded program. She says thankfully, she says the Commonwealth is in a good place.
“Right now in the state of Kentucky, all of our federally funded food assistance programs are fully funded for the next couple of months. So we’re not necessarily feeling a pinch there, just yet,” said Wallace.
The worry is that as federal employees who live in the Food Bank’s 50 county service area go unpaid, some may need assistance from the partner food pantries – putting additional strain on their resources.
“What that will do is create a strain on our already strained system,” Wallace said. “If we have people who are kind of living on the edge right now, and they’re living paycheck to paycheck, they miss one paycheck and they’re in dire straights for their family.”
With requests for food coming in from 50 counties and 400 assistance programs, Rebecca said that there’s no doubt requests for food will increase.
“We’ll respond to it the best we can. You know, we’re always asking for support from our local communities to help us feed the need because the majority of the food that we distribute comes from private support,” she said.
Private support will be absolutely vital if the shutdown continues, according to Wallace. if you want to help the food bank ahead of the shutdown, you can put food in the blue buckets at Kroger or donate money here.
