If the shutdown continues past November 1st.

Nearly 600,000 Kentuckians who rely on Snap benefits will lose access.

More people are now headed to Kentucky's food banks for help.

Our Kelsey Starks sat down with the CEO of Louisville's Dare to Care food Bank to find out how they're adjusting to the increasing need.

Vincent James is the CEO of Dare to Care Food Bank here in Louisville.

Thanks for being here.

And I know the effects of this federal government shutdown are, having an effect on everyone, but specifically for, the position that you all are in, serving the community as a food bank.

How so?

Yeah, it's been really challenging in terms of when we've been talking with our partners, really trying to understand how the government shutdown is impacting.

We, received some data yesterday that 48, 47% of our partners are talking with neighbors that have been impacted by this government shutdown.

So we were thinking, because we're not we're not heavily we're gonna have, a lot of government workers in terms as other states do in other regions, that it was not going to be as impactful.

But we're seeing on multiple levels, we are thinking about various tiers of impact that it's happening, and we hadn't thought about it that way before.

And so that's what we're seeing.

And that's what our partners are expressing that that need is increasing.

And we haven't, gone into the first paycheck.

Or we might be just at that point where they are not receiving their first paycheck.

And so we are only anticipating for it to grow.

Yeah.

And now we're hearing a lot about the snap benefits that, the money is going to expire if this continues.

Yeah.

And an estimated 595,000 Kentuckians receive Snap benefits.

What's the impact of that if it happens?

If that happens, November 1st, it's funded through November the 1st if the government is still shut down, November 1st, all of those families that you just described will no longer have access to Snap benefits.

That provides them.

A lot of people will.

No Snap benefits from the old food stamps.

That's what people you know remember as they were growing up where they had they had this the paper that looked like a money and they gave it to the grocery retailer.

Snap benefits, they receive a card and they're able to purchase, you know, our neighbors are able to purchase food, that's provided resources through the government.

But what that does is for every dollar that Snap benefits is providing, it's nine meals for that family.

And so they have opportunities to be able to take care of their families.

In times where they normally could not do it on their own.

And so the government shutdown is one part of what's happening with you all, but you all are already seeing a dramatic increase in need right now.

We're already are seeing it.

Just the past two years, we've seen a 48% increase.

That's before anything we talked about, government related has impacted the community.

And so with that, we also now are anticipating an even a greater need than the 48% in the past two years.

And we haven't seen these kinds of numbers since 2008, the Great Recession.

So why, why, why are we seeing this dramatic increase right now?

Well, I think there's because it's what I would call this perfect storm, if you will.

We had post-pandemic benefits that were no longer in existence.

That and then you had inflation taking place at the same time.

So you had gas prices increasing, food prices increasing.

And so and now that rising prices on other things as well.

And so when you have a family that is already struggling and now they don't have the additional safety nets and supports, and they're experiencing the same increase that everyone else is experiencing all of a sudden now you have a family of two that that are working every day.

They can't afford to buy groceries.

And that's the kind of situation we're hearing, unfortunately, more frequent than not.

Yeah.

And, Dare to Care was born out of a community, coming together to to address the need.

And, I know a lot of the community right now.

They're struggling with their, their own, increase in grocery prices right now.

So are you all seeing a decrease in donations and community support?

We have we've seen a decrease in smaller donations.

And that's been the challenge because one of the things anyone can support dare to care.

I mean, we have kids that will host, food drives that are on the corner instead of having a lemonade stand.

They have a food drive.

And we you know, we've seen all kinds of ways that people can help and support.

But when your budget is tight and you don't have the resources that you had in your discretionary income, is doing it to nothing is hard for you to donate and give.

And so we've been seeing a lot of the smaller gifts as we are seeing inflation in the grocery prices and everything else taking place.

You know, some of those families now are struggling is they used to donate, and now they're standing in the line that they used to donate to.

Yeah.

How is your organization, adjusting to navigate this time?

We're doing a couple of things in terms of what we're doing.

We're always thinking, you know, what always identifies that?

I say, this thing with my staff is that we got to look around the corner, and we got to see what's happening around the corner before it happened so that we can prepare.

And so we've been preparing for what we're seeing now and what we're experiencing, realizing that, you know, we can't do it by ourselves.

And we've never prepared to do it by ourselves.

Our preparation has been how do we work better in partnership with other organizations in the community that are providing resources to families that are in need and collectively working together?

We can create opportunities for families that don't have access to food, as well as other resources that may be needed.

How can those community members help at this time?

Well, one of the ways that they can help is simply go to dare to court.

And they can sign up to volunteer, volunteer at one of our food drives, our volunteer at one of our food pantries, mobile pantries, or they can volunteer at our warehouse and where they can help to prepare the food that's actually going to be distributed to our neighbors in need.

They can also go to dare to care about org and donate finances, our financial resources.

One of the things we'd like to talk to people about is our Apple Corps program, where you can sign up one time and have IT resources taken out of your account monthly, and then you don't have to think about it.

You know, you're always going to be supporting their care with the work that you're doing.

Or you can give a one time donation.

We have multiple ways in which you can, you know, contribute and support the work of Dare to Care.

What do you see as, what do you see around the corner right now?

What what do you think's happening in the future?

And how's that going to impact you all?

Well, the challenge in terms of looking at around the corner and what I see, I wish I could say I could see a much more rosier picture.

Unfortunately not, because there are some cuts and decisions that have been made and policies that have been made that is going to even make it more challenging, in the coming year for families.

And so what we're going to have to do is work, not only with legislators, working with our partners, working with our business community to say this is a collective problem that we have and a collective challenge.

And so how can we solve this together?

And that's what we've really been thinking about as we've been thinking around, looking around the corner, realizing that it's going to be a multi-sector approach to really addressing food insecurity and some of the other challenges that we face in our community.

And so that's what we're building out.

The infrastructure for, for that right now.

All right.

Thanks so much for being here.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Kelsey is my honor.

And there are some new numbers out to the show.

1 in 5 children in Kentucky, deal with some type of food insecurity.

1 in 7 adults active.

Well, thank you, Vincent James.

And thank you, Kelsey.

Dare to care.

Serves 150,000 people across 13 counties every year.

Last year alone, they supplied meals to 22 million people.