STORY AND PHOTO BY GUSTAVO PEREZ

Thanksgiving is a time, for most, to take a step back and spend time with family and friends. It’s a time to celebrate our connections with one another and appreciate each other with Thanksgiving dinner being the centerpiece of it all.

Unfortunately, for some it is a time of uncertainty and worry.

November has been a month of turmoil for some families in the Wood River Valley.

This sign outside the Bloom Community Center says, “We are what resists time and what rises with the sun.”

The government shutdown that began in October has now rolled over into November bringing about the delay in the distribution of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, or food stamps.

Due to the high cost of living in Blaine County, some families barely exceed the income threshold for SNAP, yet their earnings can’t cover increasing local housing and grocery costs.

This left families in a precarious situation this Thanksgiving. But, thankfully, the Hunger Coalition stepped up their efforts to support those in need. And this year the Coalition decided it was a time for change in how they approach the holiday season.

In prior years, the Hunger Coalition would make the Monday before Thanksgiving the big day for their Thanksgiving basket distribution. For 2025, they decided to shift from a singular day focus to letting families put in requests from the start of November.

This allowed the Hunger Coalition to better streamline their process for aid. The reduction in distribution traffic and a change to a more manageable workload made it possible to make significant increases in distribution.

The changes allowed The Hunger Coalition to help more people in need, increasing the number of Thanksgiving baskets it gave out from 708 in 2024 to 773 this year, said Kristin McMahon, communications manager for the Hunger Coalition. All told, The Hunger Coalition distributed about 63,000 pounds of food during the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

As distribution took place, McMahon staid, some cited the delay in SNAP benefit distribution as a primary motivator for seeking aid. This brought new faces and families to the center. It also brought out some who had stopped coming but were now being forced to return for help.

Even as the shutdown came to a close, SNAP recipients were still left with more questions than answers. At the start of the month, it looked like the government would only be able to allocate between 50 percent and 65 percent of the full payment with the Trump administration using funds from an Agriculture Department contingency fund.

That amounted to about $4.65 billion--roughly half of the $8 billion in food assistance payments that Americans receive each month.

Following Supreme Court intervention, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) later issued a memo that any payments made under prior instruction were now considered "unauthorized" and states must undo any action to issue full SNAP benefits for November.

Idaho residents were among the few to report starting or completing full November payments, yet the delay did not go unnoticed.

Some of the local recipients of Hunger Coalition aid, who requested to remain unnamed, said that the delay caused late or missed payments on bills and severe expenditure cuts for groceries. It also left them with a sense of fear regarding the unknown predicament they had to face.

For them, the Hunger Coalition didn’t provide them just the necessary groceries to get by. It also provided them a sense of community.

And it made them understand that, even in these troubled times, they were not forgotten.

“(The Hunger Coalition) is a huge reason why my family can still participate in the Thanksgiving festivities,” said one of the basket recipients who wanted to only be referred to as Ceci. “Without their help or the generous donations, Thanksgiving would just be another day of us fighting to get by.”

Want to access food? Or make a donation to The Hunger Coalition? Visit the https://www.thehungercoalition.org/