Maggie Rojas, a single mother of three, joined a steady procession of visitors Thursday seeking food assistance at The House – a church in Modesto that provides services to those in need.
Holding her bike while she waited in line, Rojas typically pedals to The House on Thursdays, after getting her children ready for the school bus.
In addition to using food banks and services like The House, Rojas is among the nearly 1 million people across the San Joaquin Valley who receive assistance through CalFresh – as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is known in California. It’s also commonly referred to as “food stamps.”
But with no end in sight to the federal shutdown, the fate of CalFresh benefits remains a question that’s largely in the hands of courts – while Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain at loggerheads.
With that in mind, services like The House remain all the more important for people like Rojas.
“This will hopefully last us through the weekend, and then we’re probably going to the Salvation Army’s pantry after that,” Rojas, 48, said, referring to the bread, cereal and snacks she’s picking up for her kids.
Rojas’ household qualifies for $700 a month from SNAP, which usually covers the cost of groceries for 2 weeks out of the month. On average, she spends over $1,200 per month on food, and still looks for ways to round out her family’s diet.
“Since (SNAP) isn’t coming in next month, we’ll probably go to more (food pantries) if this keeps going,” she added.
With the looming uncertainty, Valley free food assistance programs and community organizations like The House say they are strengthening their networks to meet the local needs of vulnerable families like Rojases.
Last week, the Stanislaus County Community Services Agency received instructions from the Department of Agriculture to not send out any new information on November’s SNAP program, as the shutdown would pause processing of funds.
Stanislaus County has published a Food Resource Guide that contains a list of food pantries’ locations and hours across the region, as well as the route schedule for the United Samaritans mobile food truck and options for community groups that provide prepared meals.
Plus, Merced County also put out a community notice warning about the impact to SNAP benefits, with a list of resources for residents who need access services and food.
As the debate over SNAP and the federal budget continues in Washington D.C., organizations like The House and individuals like Rojas are left wondering – what’s next?
Filling a crucial void
A federal judge on Friday ruled President Donald Trump’s administration must continue paying for the program during the government shutdown.
Those funds had been expected to run out completely on Saturday, Nov. 1 without government intervention, The New York Times reported. That could mean a reprieve for vulnerable Valley families – though it remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will appeal the decision.
Meanwhile, although residents on SNAP worry about where their next meal will come from, organizers at The House are more concerned about how they can meet the moment.
From 7:30 to 9 a.m. Thursdays, hundreds of families are directed through the parking lot of The House’s 30 acre campus, and wait in line to collect roughly $80 worth of groceries and personal hygiene products.
In the two years Dominic Disibio, outreach director The House’s Nineveh Outreach program, has run the service, he said it helps anywhere from 400 to 600 families on Thursdays and another 300 on Saturdays in the parks.
Now that the community is aware of the potential SNAP benefits pause, he and his team of 50-plus volunteers have been preparing to see those numbers spike.
“It’s not a shortage of food. It’s just sending the laborers to get it and having the means to provide for the trucks and the fuel and the bodies to go retrieve the food that would otherwise be wasted,” he told The Focus.
Of the products The House is able to keep in its 700 square foot warehouse and 22 storage containers on campus, Disibio said 90% haven’t passed best-by dates, and rarely stay long enough to reach expiration dates.
Their work is made possible, in part, by a 2016 state law that requires commercial food retailers to donate edible food waste to recovery services with the goal of reducing organic waste in landfills.
The House is one of Stanislaus County’s food recovery service sites, and serves as a hub to store supplies and distribute them to smaller food banks in the area.
“We kind of pride ourselves on not just being for the homeless demographic. We want to be for the struggling middle class, so that if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, or if you’re just barely getting by and you need help or assistance in any way for food or hygiene, we’d love to be the one that can help you,” he said.
In 2024, 30% of CalFresh/SNAP recipients were part of working class families, and over half support children, according to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Services working together
Larger regional food distribution partners across Stanislaus County say manpower and operation costs are primary concerns, as they work to prepare regional food pantries that meet people where they’re at.
Amid the federal government shutdown and potential pause on SNAP, more residents are reaching out directly to places like the Food Initiative of Greater Stanislaus and Second Harvest, which help supply places like The House.
The Food Initiative has several programs to address food insecurity through mobile food banks and one dedicated specifically to seniors. It also has a program that gives community members the opportunity to help without donating money, called the “gleaning and gathering” program – designed to collect produce from residents’ home gardens.
“This is a time that we need to stress that anything helps, every little bit helps, whether it’s $5, whether it’s donating the fruit off your trees,” said Naomi Pulido, operations manager of the Food Initiative of Greater Stanislaus.
Since the SNAP benefits pause announcement, Pulido said her teams reported 20 to 30 more families were utilizing services in October, across their 20 mobile sites in the county. If SNAP benefits are impacted, in total, they expect to see 100 more families visiting their food pantry partners, on top of the 500 the initiative normally serves per month.
Second Harvest of the Greater Valley, one of the largest food banks in the region, has not seen an increase in visitors, but they have been receiving more calls from people on SNAP inquiring about their services, said Jennifer Mora, director of development and communications.
The group hosts its own plethora of services, but mainly receives and organizes food when it comes in from donors like Trader Joe’s and apple orchards. The organization also packages supplies according to the needs of local food bank partners.
Judy Preus, a Modesto retiree, has been a core volunteer at Second Harvest for the past decade and worked with the organization through the pandemic.
She expects the potential SNAP cuts to impact the region similarly to what she saw during COVID. As a result, she is urging her neighbors to consider volunteering.
“These boxes (we make) are so crucial,” she said, “because they get directly to people we know (who) need it. It’s going to people who really need it. That’s the most rewarding thing for me, is getting food out to people.”
Stanislaus County officials estimate that around 92,000 residents could go without SNAP benefits if the federal budget isn’t passed.
Statistics from this summer show 18,174 of residents on SNAP in Stanislaus are over 60 years old, said Christine Huber, the county’s community services agency director.
She said that the older demographic of residents has been particularly vulnerable during other emergencies.
“(Seniors) don’t necessarily ask for help or don’t have transportation or things like that, and so you know, making sure that you know that everyone gets this information and everyone feels supported to ask for help,” she said.
The Trump administration has argued the SNAP funds are “not legally available to cover regular benefits” and thus would be withheld in favor of keeping the funds available in case the USDA needs to provide assistance during natural disasters.
However, the program previously was legally protected by contingency funds, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Less than 2% of the annual federal budget goes towards SNAP.
Families and residents who rely on the support are still expected to submit documentation to keep their SNAP benefits even though November funds could be delayed.
The Stanislaus Community Foundation released a statement on the topic, and has asked its donors to consider supporting its “Food for Families Fund.”
“Don’t be embarrassed if you need food, contact the food bank. They can tell you where you can go to get food. So don’t be embarrassed by that. Try not to feel ashamed of something. There are a lot of people in exactly the same position, and we want you to be healthy,” Preus said.