The delay in distribution of SNAP benefits this month due to the government shutdown put a spotlight on food insecurity in communities across the country, including the Outer Cape.
CAI's Gilda Geist talked to the Provincetown Independent's Christine Legere to learn more.
Gilda Geist How many people on the Outer Cape have been impacted by the delayed distribution of SNAP benefits?
Christine Legere There are actually over 1,000 people who are enrolled in the program currently, just on the Outer Cape. Statewide, it's over a million, with 32 percent of the participants being children, 26 percent are seniors, and 31 percent are people with disabilities. In the veterans population, it is about 10 percent, about 21,000 veterans.
GG How have Outer Cape food pantries and community members stepped up to help over the past week or so that SNAP has been in limbo?
CL Food pantries really reached out to the public and the public apparently responded quite well with both food and cash donations. The Lower Cape Outreach Council, which manages nine different food panties and has pantries in all four of the Outer Cape towns, said that they had received a real surge in both food and cash donations. And one was even an Instacart delivery that was made from an anonymous donor. So people are using all kinds of different ways of [donating]. Provincetown officials posted quite a bit of information on their website so that the public would know where the food pantries were, as well as other resources and what their hours were and contact information. The soup kitchens—the one that I happened to contact was in Provincetown, but they have them pretty much in all the towns—and it's called the Soup Kitchen of Provincetown, or SKIP. They were ready November 3, and that was going to be their first day for their luncheon program where they were concerned that they wouldn't have enough meals. So they made burgers, and they ended up with plenty of food, tubs of potato salad, burger patties left over. But they did serve over 180 meals, which was higher usual, according to Philip Franchini, who's the chair.
GG SNAP benefits have now been paid out in full in Massachusetts for this month, but you mentioned in your article that food insecurity is still an issue on the Outer Cape. What's driving that issue?
CL Katie Wibby, who's the CEO of the Lower Cape Outreach Council, was the one that brought that up. And she said that based on their statistics, the number of households using the council's nine food pantries across the Lower and Outer Cape had increased by 25 percent over last year. So that was pretty dramatic, and she said the amount of food that families were taking was more, which shows the need is greater because they'll often supplement what they can purchase with whatever they can get at the food pantries. One third of the population that the Outreach Council services is food insecure, and she said it's due to the rising cost of groceries along with the high cost of living on Cape Cod.
GG What resources exist on the Outer Cape to help folks get enough to eat?
CL I think one place that can at least provide them with information to where they can find these resources are the senior centers in town. The councils on aging generally have that kind of information year-round, not just in a crisis such as what's happening right now. There is also a guide that was right on the Provincetown website that was updated in October. So it was totally up to date, produced by the Outer Cape Community Solutions, a nonprofit that listed all of the food pantries, their addresses, hours, contact information and everywhere people could get free meals. And there were even some little food pantries that are open 24/7 where people can go, and they just have stocks of non-perishable items that can get people by.
For more information, check out Christine's full story in the Provincetown Independent.
