FISH offers food to the hungry

Event distributes food in wake of SNAP freeze

Volunteers pack boxes with food on Monday morning at Faith in Serving Humanity (FISH) in Monroe. The multiple-church Christian ministry held a special food distribution Monday for Walton County residents losing their federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, and for federal workers living in Walton County who are not being paid while reporting to work in the ongoing federal government shutdown.  Jim Thompson | The Walton Tribune

Dozens of boxes of food were distributed Monday at the headquarters of Faith in Serving Humanity in Monroe, as the Christian outreach ministry worked to assist Walton County residents who had lost their federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits on Monday amid ongoing partisan wrangling in Washington, D.C. over the federal budget and the associated ongoing federal government shutdown.

Also targeted by the special FISH food distribution were federal government employees living in Walton County who are not being paid during the shutdown, with first-of-the-month bills and mortgage payments coming due.

Cindy Little, the longtime executive director of FISH, pronounced herself “flabbergasted” that the ministry was prompted into action by a federal government shutdown.

“Here we are, in the richest country in the world,” Little said, “There’s no rhyme or reason.”

Monday’s food distribution at FISH on South Madison Avenue was organized late last week and into the weekend, as churches contributed thousands of dollars for food purchases, and put in hours of volunteer time at FISH to support the effort.

As late as Monday morning, with dozens of cars lining up on Mill Street and Radford Street adjacent to FISH, volunteers were packing boxes and bags with a mix of items including canned vegetables, peanut butter, cereal, cups of fruit, rice, and frozen chicken and beef.

That work followed the Saturday work by volunteers to stockpile packed boxes to ensure they would be ready for Monday’s distribution. In all, 350 boxes and bags were waiting as a line of cars — down Mill Street from South Madison Avenue to South Broad Street, and for a few blocks down Radford Street from its intersection with Mill Street — began moving into the FISH headquarters.

Once there, volunteers loaded boxes into the cars, exchanged blessings and pleasantries with the occupants, and moved on as the next vehicle pulled into place.

According to Little, the contents of the boxes and bags were designed to provide families of between two and four people with a week’s worth of food.

Depending on where the immediate future of SNAP settles, Little said, FISH may soon do another special food distribution. In the meantime, she added, the organization’s focus is shifting somewhat toward federal government employees who aren’t being paid even as they continue reporting to work.

There were some signs Monday that the SNAP issue might be working toward some limited resolution. In the wake of a federal court order from last week, the administration of President Donald Trump indicated that it would be covering half of the normal SNAP benefits for November, but it was not clear when those benefits might be paid out.

Despite that glimmer of good news, Little remained concerned, wondering what might happen as the roller-coaster ride of SNAP benefits continues.

“Can they shut it down again?,” she wondered aloud.

Frustration was also evident among the people who drove to FISH on Monday for the food distribution.

“They need to help people,” said one elderly woman, who lives with an extended family of eight people. The woman, who did not give her name, gets just $23 monthly in SNAP benefits.

Noting the long line of cars in which she was sitting on Mill Street, the woman pronounced the situation “very sad.”

“They all have a reason to be here,” she said, as she looked toward the cars in front of her in line.

Another woman, 82 years old with a part-time job, was blunt in her assessment of Monday’s food distribution.

She gets $57 monthly in SNAP benefits, and suggested, “They ought to cut off the paychecks to all the politicians.”

But perhaps the most poignant comment came Monday from an older woman who was conversing with FISH volunteers as she waited to move forward in line on Monday.

“This is sad,” she said, “but beautiful.”