Jacqueline Gordon took Monday off from her job as a direct support professional for Weaver Industries to go from food pantry to food pantry.
At the third she visited, Good Neighbors in Goodyear Heights, Gordon said her daughter and three grandchildren, who live with her, were getting between $800 and $900 a month in supplemental nutrition assistance program, or SNAP, benefits.
Gordon herself was receiving $35 monthly, down from $568 once she started her job at Weaver. It helped make ends meet for her and her 15- and 21-year-old children, who also live at home.
But with the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, November benefits have not been sent. And while President Donald Trump was ordered by two judges to fund the program, and the administration said it would use an emergency fund to cover about half of benefits, it’s not clear when that money would be available. In Summit County, about 77,000 people rely on SNAP.
“It helped get a packet of meat and some bread to make a meal,” Gordon said of her benefits, commonly known as food stamps. “I’m already struggling as it is. They’re making it no better.”
Her daughter’s benefits had largely covered food for the family, while Gordon was responsible for the $1,350 monthly rent on the home just around the corner from Good Neighbors. She said that at the beginning of the month, with other bills due, she felt devastated, and as though she was doing everything she could to keep her family housed and clothed.
“It’s absurd,” Gordon said. “It’s the end of the world, like, literally.”
Gordon’s was one of 83 families who on Monday sought food at Good Neighbors. In 2024, the food center served 11,640 families; as of Monday, it had served 10,792 this year. Debi Foss, the treasurer of Good Neighbors, Inc., said her volunteers have been overwhelmed by the amount of need.
Good Neighbors lets people come back every 30 days, but Foss said she’s increasingly seeing people come back sooner.
“I feel really bad for them,” she said. “You can tell they’re frustrated and scared. There’s so many new clients coming right now.”
‘Food is a necessity’
Michelle Parr is one of them. Parr, who used to be a healthcare aide, has been on disability since long COVID made it impossible for her to work. She had come to Good Neighbors years ago, she said, but not recently.
Parr had been getting $29 a month in SNAP benefits, and, she said, it helped. But Monday, through tears, Parr said she was scared and worried for herself and others.
“I’m sad, I’m depressed, I’m overwhelmed,” she said. “The government should open back up and try to do better. I just think it’s awful. No kid in America should go hungry.”
At First Apoostolic Faith Church in Sherbondy Hill, Bishop Samuel Hampton II agreed.
His church, known as The Faith Place, on Monday served 120 families at its First Faith Development food pantry, said Daisy Blackson, a volunteer. For 35 of them, it was their first time there.
“Food is a necessity, and it starts to reveal the other issues that we have,” Hampton said. “We’re supposed to be the greatest country ever. It really starts to make you wonder: Is America the greatest country? If you can’t feed your people?”
Hampton said that, in addition to opening the pantry, he’s been giving away gift cards and sending people money through CashApp so they can buy food. Some of the people who need help are managing cancer or other health concerns and can’t find food they can eat at the pantry.
There’s a budget for such gifts, Hampton said, but it will need to be expanded. He’d also like more volunteers for the pantry. It’s currently open two days a week, and, with more help, could expand its impact.
“You see all these needs,” Hampton said. “I feel like you wish the government would get their act together.”
Akron to donate $100,000 to food bank
In her household, Stacy Huffman said, money or gift cards would be more helpful to allow her to feed her 21-year-old autistic son, who has texture issues and will only eat certain foods.
Huffman looked through the box she had just picked up at First Faith Development — it contained potatoes, a frozen chicken, some salt-and-vinegar chips, Sour Patch Kids, Mountain Dew and canned beans, among some other offerings. Her son would drink the Mountain Dew, she said, but “he won’t eat any of this.”
And besides that, she said, you can’t make a meal out of candy.
Huffman, who said she hasn’t been able to work since she was in a car accident a decade ago with a semi-truck, has been selling collectibles and clothes to supplement the $543 a month she was receiving in SNAP benefits. Her son takes a medication that increases his appetite, so federal cuts are going to make it harder for her to get him food he is willing to eat.
“I’m going to be going to a lot of food banks,” she said. “It sucks; it really sucks.”
Even if the administration does make some food aid available, Huffman said, it will take another week or two for the benefits to be distributed. So in the meantime, she’s cut back on what she eats in anticipation of a long road ahead. She’s also donated plasma to make more money.
“I was hoping this would be over,” Huffman said. “It’s tough, and a lot of people don’t realize how tough it is.”
The City of Akron on Monday agreed to donate $100,000 to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank $50,000 at a time, a move that comes after Summit County provided $250,000 in aid.
“The government shutdown is impacting many lives every day,” Council Member Phil Lombardo said in introducing the legislation, which passed 13-0.
Earlier, during a council committee meeting, Katie Carver Reed, the food bank’s vice president and chief operating officer, said her organization had not been created to take the place of SNAP, “but here we are.”
“It’s really scary times that we’re even having this conversation,” Council President Margo Sommerville said. “We just want to make sure when people go to the local pantry, there is food on the shelf.”
Increased need could lead to decrease in aid
There’s been a “deluge” of people who need help, said George Camilletti, a trustee for Good Neighbors and the former manager of the food pantry. Camilletti said the emergency pantry aims to provide five to seven days of food to families, plus toilet paper, soap and toothbrushes.
Camilletti said he’s worried about how long Good Neighbors can sustain its level of giving, especially as contributions are down and the cost of buying food from the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank has increased. The food center’s income is 46% below what was budgeted, while expenses are almost 5% higher than projections.
He said it’s possible Good Neighbors could reduce how much food each family gets — if the trend continues.
Evan Pol, a case manager who was picking up food for a client at Good Neighbors, said the people he works with have been struggling to eat healthily — or at all. Pol said one client with two children told him she stole canned goods. She needed food.
“It’s reaching a boiling point,” he said. “I think the current administration has shown right now they simply do not care about the average American.”
If politicians don’t manage to reopen the government, Pol said, he sees the situation continuing to get worse.
Breonna Swisher said Good Neighbors was the second food pantry she went to Monday, after waiting in a long line at a different food pantry only to discover there was no food left by the time she reached the front. Swisher, who has four children, said she was receiving $1,100 a month.
Stressors rise for SNAP users
Nasya Burns, who was getting $780 a month for herself and her two kids, said she wishes stores would lower prices with the understanding that people needed to stretch their dollars.
Burns had saved $200 of her previous month’s benefits to fill the gap, but said she spent $110 at Marc’s for lunches for her autistic son, whose school doesn’t provide food. She thinks she’ll have to make difficult decisions about whether to pay rent or gas or other bills.
Or put food on the table.
And with the weather cooling, she’ll need to buy warm clothes, too.
“It’s stressful,” Burns said.
The effect on the elderly, the disabled and people like Kanosha Booker, who has a four-month-old, is burdensome. Her youngest has had multiple surgeries since birth, and eats a special formula that can cost as much as $60 a can.
In addition to $940 a month in SNAP benefits, Booker receives benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, to help pay for the formula. The administration will continue to fund that program, but Booker is concerned that it, too, might be cut.
She’s also worried about her mother, who had spinal surgery last year and can’t work. She also receives benefits.
“I don’t know what they expect for us to be able to do without the assistance,” Booker said. “We shouldn’t have to make life decisions on whether we eat today or whether we pay rent. It’s diabolical to me. ”
