Frederica Freyberg:

In other state news, February will be the last month that people in Wisconsin will receive expanded Foodshare benefits under a federal program that began during the pandemic. Some 400,000 households in the state struggle to afford food and receive Foodshare. Under the formula for income-eligible participants, a household of one person, for example, receives $281 per month in regular Foodshare benefits plus the extra $95, until that extra amount ends March 1st. The Feed My People Foodbank in Eau Claire has already seen increased demand, with 2 1/2 times the number of cars coming to a pop-up distribution site after families were notified that the extra benefits are ending. We go now to their executive director, Suzanne Becker, for more. And thanks very much for being here.

Suzanne Becker:

You bet. I’m happy to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So in addition to people trying to prepare for the end of this extra benefit, describe how busy you’ve been over the past several years.

Suzanne Becker:

I can tell you that right now as we’re speaking, we have — we’re doing a distribution and we have a line longer than we have seen since the heart of the pandemic. A lot of folks — and we’ve talked to a lot of these folks and they’re concerned, they’re afraid. The higher Foodshare benefits have been a game changer for many people, not only through the pandemic but also through inflation and the high cost of living right now, so this is going to be very difficult, very difficult on many.

Frederica Freyberg:

And yet that expanded benefit is just a max of $95, but still you say a game changer?

Suzanne Becker:

Oh, yeah. Yes. It has been. And we know that, that seniors and families, working families, it’s just been what they needed to keep paying the bills, to keep providing for their families, and this is going to be difficult.

Frederica Freyberg:

Because what kind of strain have prices of food put on your food bank?

Suzanne Becker:

Yeah, very true. You know, the food supply, when you don’t see food on your grocery shelves, it’s certainly not hitting the food bank. So what it’s caused is food banks across the country to spend a lot more money on purchasing food to make sure that we have enough as opposed to the donated food. And of course that costs a lot of money. And then when we see higher costs, and of course higher gas prices affect our trucks, higher utility costs, all of that affects the food bank as well, but you know, we have to do whatever we can to fill the gap for folks.

Frederica Freyberg:

Have you been able to kind of keep pace with the demand, with all of those things that you were just describing?

Suzanne Becker:

We have. We have. You know, we work through Feeding America, and our community steps up and they have done, you know, tremendous things. We just have to do what we can. We have to continue to do it and, you know, we just hope that folks will come for help. We know that there’s a lot of people out there who have not had to do this before, come to our distribution, or come to a distribution in their community, and we really hope, we really encourage that anybody listening will encourage that they do that. There is help there. We will do what it takes until this — until this — you know, until we’re able to come back to a place that folks can do what they can do.

Frederica Freyberg:

So we know that people are kind of trying to prepare for the end of that extra benefit, but what have folks said to you about how they will weather less of a food budget come March?

Suzanne Becker:

We did a survey not that long ago, and it was based around inflation but it’s the same type of thing, and there was a lot of discussion of, you know, we’re keeping our heat very, very low. That parents are going without so their kids can have what they need. We’re worried about seniors. Seniors is an area of folks that struggle to get to a food pantry, struggle to get out because of transportation, and also there’s such a pride factor with seniors that we feel like we really need to be proactive in trying to reach them. So there’s a lot of ways that people will, you know, figure it out. It just not — you know, it trickles down to our kids. I had a mom tell me that they were doing everything they could to hide it from their kids because they didn’t want their kids to understand that they were struggling, and as a mom of two, that just hurts my heart. We need to — we need to provide the support that they need.

Frederica Freyberg:

In terms of helping seniors who might even be home-bound, are there extra steps being taken there?

Suzanne Becker:

We do work with Meals-on-Wheels, and we provide supplemental food bags to them, and those are meant to be supplemental, just so they have more, and also, you know, because we live in Wisconsin and there’s winter, and so when Meals-on-Wheels can’t deliver, that provides food for them. We have upped that. We have just done a distribution for that and we hope to do another one soon. Wonderful to be able to work with Meals-on-Wheels, who can already identify who those folks are.

Frederica Freyberg:

Absolutely. Well, Suzanne Becker, thank you for your work.

Suzanne Becker:

Thank you. Thank you very much.