NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sarah Lungwitz has been worried not just about feeding her two teenage daughters amid disrupted SNAP payments, but also about providing for her family’s cat and two dogs.
Help arrived recently when an Illinois nonprofit arranged for volunteers to give her a grocery gift card to buy food for herself and her pets. This support is part of a growing effort to help struggling pet owners stretch their dollars during the longest government shutdown on record, which has delayed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments.
“I don’t even make enough money for all my bills, let alone groceries,” said Lungwitz, a 46-year-old auto parts store worker. She has feared she might have to surrender her cat, Bambi, and her two dogs, Spike and Chloe.
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order requiring full funding of SNAP food aid payments during the shutdown. This came even as residents in more than a half-dozen states had already received those funds.
The uncertainty is placing extra strain on animal shelters. Although SNAP benefits cannot be used to buy pet food, the assistance program helps low-income families free up money to purchase kibble and other pet necessities. Many owners also supplement or substitute their animals’ diets with human food bought using SNAP benefits, explained Stephanie Hicks, executive director of Care for Pets, a Rockford, Illinois nonprofit that assisted Lungwitz and others. Some volunteers even accompany struggling pet owners in grocery stores to help them shop wisely.
The Humane World for Animals, formerly part of the Humane Society of the United States, estimates that more than 20 million pets live in poverty with their families. Economic hardship is one of the primary reasons animals are surrendered to shelters, said spokesperson Kirsten Peek. While it is too early to determine if an uptick in surrenders is occurring due to the shutdown, shelters are collecting pet food in anticipation of a possible surge. This concern is amplified as hundreds of thousands of furloughed government workers are without paychecks.
“An increase in surrenders is always a concern when an influx of people fall on hard times,” Peek said.
Some shelters are considering reallocating funds to cover pet food needs. In Baton Rouge, the Companion Animal Alliance recently lost a donor, forcing it to halt a pet food distribution program that served about 200 families each month. The SNAP delays hit at a particularly difficult time for the shelter.
“People are exceptionally panicking. I don’t know what a better word would be,” said Paula Shaw, the shelter’s director of access to care. She noted that it’s common for SNAP recipients to give their own food to pets, so the shelter provides information about human foods that can be added to pet food to make it last longer.
In Massachusetts, Charley’s Angles Pet Initiative saw immediate offers of pet food and Venmo donations after a plea posted on Facebook last week.
“We’re expecting, at least in the short term, that there’s going to be a surge,” said Kandi Finch, a groomer who named her nonprofit after a beloved pet.
Similar surges are being reported elsewhere. At New Leash on Life, a shelter in Lebanon, Tennessee, the number of families using its pet food pantry increased to 125 in October, up from a typical 75 to 100 per month, said executive director Angela Chapman.
“We’d rather help them with their food than have to surrender a pet,” she said.
In New Orleans, Zeus’ Rescues distributed double the normal amount of pet food in October, founder Michelle Cheramie said. Demand there is the highest it has been in 20 years, with some people so desperate they have been leaving animals in the shelter’s yard.
Among those seeking help there was Katie Saari, unemployed due to health issues, struggling to arrange interviews for SNAP benefits amid the shutdown. Out of money, she needed food for her two dogs.
“They’re more important to me than I am, so I want to make sure they’re fed first,” she said. “They’re my babies.”
Many food pantries have also stocked their shelves with pet food in response. Kim Buckman, with Feeding Missouri—a coalition of food banks—said, “We do know a lot of people will feed their pets before themselves. In some cases, that is their emotional support animal.”
For Lungwitz, this is certainly the case. She lives with PTSD and severe depression, and a psychiatrist recommended she get a dog because they need walks. That’s how she came to own her Chihuahua. Her 80-pound American Bulldog, “pure muscle,” has helped her feel safe as a domestic violence survivor.
She says her dogs have helped her gain the confidence to venture out and find work. But money is so tight that she sometimes relies on food banks, including one where she got doughnuts for her 17-year-old daughter’s birthday.
“I’m struggling,” she said.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
https://ktar.com/national-news/families-on-snap-worry-about-not-just-feeding-themselves-but-also-their-pets/5772793/
