MIAMI VALLEY — In just three days, millions of Americans will lose benefits they use to help keep food on their table.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will run out of money on Saturday due to the government shutdown.
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This will impact tens of thousands of people right here in the Miami Valley.
Just in Montgomery County alone, 83,000 people rely on SNAP to feed their families.
Miami Valley Meals is looking to up their production to address the increased need that’ll be created if those benefits lapse starting this weekend.
The non-profit organization got a delivery on Wednesday.
“So, we’re taking in thousands of pounds of rescue food. This happens every other week. It just happens to be a big delivery day today,” Taylor Naragon, Miami Valley Meals Communications Manager, said.
Miami Valley Meals helps fight hunger in our community.
“We take on donated and rescued food that will then turn into meals later today and tomorrow,” Naragon said.
The need for this organization is already great in the Dayton region. But there could be an increase in demand starting this weekend.
Tens of millions of Americans are at risk of losing the federal food and nutrition benefits from the program that helps low-income families afford their groceries and feed their families.
Miami Valley Meals is trying to increase production to help fill the gap created by possible cuts to SNAP.
“With these new changes, we’re anticipating that more people are going to be seeking food assistance from pantries. The people that we partner with who have these meals. So we’re meeting as a team, and we met earlier this week to assess how many more meals we can make. We know people need them, so we’re just trying to figure out the logistics of how we can make more and how many we can make,” Naragon said.
Miami Valley Meals is a long-time 7 Circle of Kindness partner of ours here at Channel 7.
The two things they say they need the most are cash donations and volunteers.
For more information on how you can help, click here.
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