Food assistance groups in the tri-county region warn that the loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Saturday could trigger immediate food insecurity for thousands of people.
Roughly 6,000 people — half of them children — in Pitkin, Eagle, and Garfield counties will lose those benefits starting November 1st, due to the federal government shutdown.
SNAP is the nation’s largest food assistance program, and the Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program, or “WIC,” will also see a major rollback of funds.
Representatives from hunger relief organizations in Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties met on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming suspension of benefits.
Amber Henning, the director of development and community relations at the Food Bank of the Rockies, said the demand for food assistance in the region was already at a 10-year high before the SNAP cuts were set to take effect.
“We are really expecting a huge uptick at a lot of our pantries,” she said. “Even just before all of these things happened, we were seeing about a 20% increase at some of our mobile pantry locations from year over year. So the need has already been growing.”
Representatives from other groups in the region echoed those observations. Gray Warr, the executive director for Harvest for Hunger, said his organization is anticipating a 40% rise in food demand if SNAP benefits are suspended. The Eagle County Community Foundation also expects a rapid increase in visits to its pantry — in line with the 28% uptick seen after the pandemic-era emergency benefits ended in 2023.
LIFT-UP’s interim executive director Elyse Hottel noted that the organization is scrambling to prepare by outsourcing some labor and ramping up their food rescue efforts at grocery stores and restaurants in the Colorado River Valley, but she said it’s tough to predict exactly how much additional food organizations need to stockpile.
“We're all playing a little bit of a wait-and-see game, because we just don't know what the volume is going to look like, and we're trying to anticipate,” she said. “But at the same time, it's like, you don't want food to go bad and then not have the people come.”
This is not the first time federal food assistance has been under attack. The Trump Administration’s budget bill, H.R.1, cut $186 billion from the SNAP program.
Meanwhile, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined 24 other states in suing the administration for suspending SNAP during the government shutdown. Weiser argues the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, is illegally withholding billions in emergency funds already appropriated by Congress for the program.
At a press conference Wednesday, Rep. Joe Neguse for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District called the administration’s refusal to release the funds “callous disregard” for the wellbeing of millions of Americans.
In the meantime, Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee has approved spending $10 million from the state’s reserves to shore up food banks and food assistance programs while SNAP benefits are suspended.
Some organizations are already seeing a surge of support. Yulisa Almarez, with the Eagle Valley Community Foundation said they’ve had more volunteers at their pantry and several restaurants have offered to provide free meals.
A list of food pantries in the tri-county area is available on the West Mountain Regional Health Alliance website. Food banks are also encouraging individuals to donate or volunteer their time in the coming weeks to help meet the increased demand.
