After shutdown, Food Bank of Wyoming races to restock for holiday rush

The original story by John Habershaw for Wyoming News Now.

With the longest US government shutdown finally over and Thanksgiving already behind us, the Food Bank of Wyoming is gearing up for what it calls its busiest stretch of the year.

“We are doing our darnedest to restock all of these shelves,” said Olivia Schon, Director of Development for the Food Bank of Wyoming.

The 43-day shutdown temporarily paused SNAP (food stamp) benefits for thousands of people, putting extra strain on food pantries statewide. Schon says more than 28,000 Wyoming residents were affected by the disruption, and hunger relief groups saw a surge of new faces.

“I’ve even heard some of our hunger relief partners say that they had seen sometimes more than 80 new families come through their doors,” she said. “We really had to work hard on our end to make sure that we had the food available to be able to provide them.”

To keep up, the food bank purchased 49% more food in November than usual.

All that extra effort showed up in the numbers: the Food Bank of Wyoming distributed 1.1 million pounds of food in November — the equivalent of about 994,000 meals — a 4% jump from October. Schon says those figures underline just how critical SNAP is across the state.

“As a state we really realized that we don’t have enough resources if SNAP is not being funded,” she said.

Now, with Christmas on the horizon, the food bank is working to source as much food as possible from inside Wyoming.

“We’re working with local food producers for produce and meats, and are really trying to do our due diligence to put that money back into the economy as well,” Schon explained. “So right now during the holiday season we’re trying to restock our shelves so that our hunger relief partners throughout the state will be able to have the food that they need to feed our neighbors.”

And for anyone wondering how to help, even a small donation goes a long way. Throughout the month of December, every $1 donated to the Food Bank of Wyoming will provide six meals to people in the community who need it most.