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Some SNAP recipients have been seeing payments again, though the Trump administration is appealing a court order to fully restart the program amid the government shutdown. About 42 million Americans rely on SNAP. For many of them, the uncertainty of whether they would get any funds last week forced them to turn to food pantries for the - for help for the first time. Adam Wagner with the North Carolina Newsroom has this report from a food pantry in Tarboro.
ADAM WAGNER, BYLINE: A little more than an hour east of Raleigh, Tarboro is in Edgecombe County. About 30% of its nearly 50,000 residents receive SNAP benefits. With funding for SNAP in limbo, the need has been especially obvious at Tarboro Community Outreach. The center houses the county's largest food pantry, which feeds at least 6,000 people each month.
UNIDENTIFIED FOOD PANTRY WORKER: Deli meat.
WAGNER: People start lining up around 11:30 each morning. If they're familiar with the system, they take a number. If they are first-timers, they sign up for a card that lets the local food bank track their visits across pantries. There are about 20 new people today. They all get a grocery cart.
UNIDENTIFIED FOOD PANTRY WORKER: Help yourself.
WAGNER: Pantry workers were worried they didn't have enough food donations for everyone waiting. Manager Phyllis Parrisher (ph) announced a truck with more food would be arriving the next day.
PHYLLIS PARRISHER: You're not supposed to shop twice a week simply because of the food shortage.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: All we need...
PARRISHER: But since I'm having this truck, and I know that's not a lot of food there, I'm telling you, you can come back tomorrow.
WAGNER: Then Parrisher started calling numbers.
PARRISHER: Seven. Eleven.
WAGNER: People walked past tables lined with whatever the food bank had gathered. There was spinach, deli meat, potato salad, pre-prepared fruits and vegetables from a local grocery store.
UNIDENTIFIED FOOD PANTRY WORKER: Get that bread. Don't be scared. Get that bread, that bread. Get that bread. Get that stuff free.
WAGNER: Near the end of the line, everyone was allowed to pick one sweet from an assortment that included doughnut holes, cherry pies and a few cakes. The very last stop was a rack with canned goods, where a worker tossed in however many cans of corn, beans or spinach someone requested.
Trinity Holloman lives with her grandfather. They typically receive about $150 in SNAP benefits each month. Holloman says SNAP's uncertainty caused her to panic, including pushing her to visit food pantries more frequently.
TRINITY HOLLOMAN: It's like you honestly have no idea what's going to happen. You don't know if you're going to get anything. You don't know if you're going to get the half. And if you don't get anything, it's like looking at, what are you going to do? How are you going to make it to the next day?
WAGNER: One of the people signing up for a new food bank card was Tameca Whitaker. She usually receives about $200 in SNAP benefits to feed herself and four sons, ages 16 through 21. Whitaker is a certified nursing assistant and is picking up more hours at work to try to meet expenses.
TAMECA WHITAKER: That's the only way. And that leave less time at home, a lot of less time at home 'cause I got to pick up extra shifts to cover the bills and the food.
WAGNER: The tables were bare by the time Whitaker arrived, but workers gathered enough food to give her a box. With inflation still on the rise, pantry organizers say more people have been seeking food relief in recent months. If supplies continue to dwindle, they say their food pantry could instead become a soup kitchen, offering at least one hot meal per day.
For NPR News, I'm Adam Wagner in Tarboro, North Carolina.
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