Some Southern Arizonans were struck with panic this fall when, in the wake of a government shutdown, the Trump administration announced it was halting the release of food stamps come November.
People like Kelly McGuire, among the hundreds of thousands of Arizonans who receive federal food aid each month, feared they would go hungry.
“They don’t even give me nothing after this, so October was my last month of $23,” she said.
Local food aid programs anticipated higher demand. Vickie Brookover, a volunteer with Tucson Food Share said that, in October, she saw unusually long lines of people waiting to pick up free groceries.
“I foresee it being far more desperate and I’m concerned that, where we have a lottery system, people may become aggressive trying to get in,” Brookover said.
We also saw a tug of war between Arizona officials and the federal government unfold. Democratic leaders demanded the timely release of full benefits. Amid pushback from the Capitol, they filed lawsuits, distributed emergency funds and held food drives.
Speaking to the media in October, Gov. Katie Hobbs said it was the president’s responsibility to make Supplemental Nutrition Assistance available to states.
“The president, again, could end this right now if he chose to free up these funds that are designed for this purpose. The government has never shut down and left people hungry like they’re choosing to do right now,” Hobbs said.
Several federal judges then ruled that the Trump administration must release benefits in full and after weeks of delay and even more back-and-forth, SNAP monies finally reached most people by November 13. However, Tucsonans applying for benefits are now experiencing delays due to staffing shortages at the state Department of Economic Security.
Jasmin Ceballos of Tucson went weeks without her SNAP funds.
I found her story through Nextdoor as well, and when I met up with her, she told me she had been through a difficult year, having had her car stolen and now unable to sufficiently feed herself and her two children.
“After the whole government shut down, honestly, me, myself, I was struggling with even buying pasta and spaghetti sauce. I was just like, you know what, I had a lot of clothes, a lot of canned foods that I don’t use and I’m like maybe we can exchange and help each other out,” she said.
She turned to her neighbors and offered something that would not only benefit her own family, but the rest of the community.
A shelf and one table outside in her front yard was all it took to get a community pantry going.
After posting to Nextdoor inviting people to donate and take goods home, Ceballos said that people came to fill up the pantry right away and they continued in the weeks following the shutdown’s end.
“There are a lot of good people out there and it makes up for all the bad stuff that’s going around,” Ceballos said.
In addition to food and clothing, people had donated paper products, baby wipes and formula, cleaning supplies, books, DVDs and even yarn.
Ceballos said that the senior and unhoused communities have benefited from the pantry.
“I just love helping other people, especially I see a lot of elderly people going around and when they would come, they're just so happy and they would just take whatever they needed. I’m like ‘Take whatever you need.’ I’m like ‘Take everything if you want it.’ I don’t care!” Ceballos said.
She told me that she planned to keep the pantry open largely because many of the food aid resources in Tucson require documentation or have limited hours. At Jasmin’s, anyone in need had 24/7 access and could participate, no questions asked.
Earlier this month she posted to Nextdoor, saying that her landlord no longer would allow the pantry to stay, but she was met with many “thank you”s, “God bless you”s and heart emojis.
