An updated photo of the Bend City Hall exterior.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra / OPB
Days before delayed food benefit payments reached Oregonians, Bend city councilors approved a $20,000 donation to a regional food bank to help address hunger in Central Oregon.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are normally paid by the federal government and administered by states, but federal SNAP payments were delayed by the 43-day-long government shutdown.
In Oregon, payments were restored with federal funding on Nov. 7, and federal lawmakers voted to reopen the government Wednesday, but Bend leaders said they won’t be rescinding the food bank donation, and the need for food assistance in the region existed long before the government shutdown.
Bend city councilors decided to donate $20,000 to NeighborImpact, which operates Central Oregon food banks, during a Nov. 5 city council meeting. The donation is intended to help roughly 23,400 households in the region who use SNAP benefits and nearly one third of Central Oregon residents struggling to cover their basic expenses.
Even though SNAP benefits are expected to resume, Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler said of the NeighborImpact donation, “the money is given and it’s done.”
City Councilor Mike Riley said the city’s elected leadership wanted to show it cares about people in the community. The money is intended to help NeighborImpact address food insecurity, but the city didn’t make any other requirements for how the money should be used.
During the meeting, Riley criticized the federal government for “being cruel” to people who rely on food assistance in Central Oregon and across the country. He told OPB the donation is a “drop in the bucket, given the need.”
NeighborImpact Deputy Executive Director of Community Services Molly Heiss said at the meeting that of the 23,400 Central Oregon households enrolled in SNAP across Jefferson, Crook and Deschutes counties, as well as on the Warm Springs Reservation, over a third of enrollees live in Bend.
The recent SNAP funding delays put more pressure on people who have already been struggling to make ends meet, she said.
In late October, Family Kitchen, a Central Oregon soup kitchen, began serving more people. People were trying to stretch their SNAP benefits, Executive Director Olivia Parker said. Family Kitchen provides free hot meals to people in Bend, Redmond and Sisters.
The demand for meal services in Bend has grown significantly over the past year, she said, from 1,600 meals to 2,000.
“The thing that a lot of folks are struggling with right now is increased grocery prices. You probably see it at home. I see it at home,” Parker said. The cost of housing and the minimum wage level also contribute to food insecurity, she said.
According to a recent City of Bend report on the economy, “on average, wage increases in the city have not kept pace with the cost-of-living increases in recent years,” and the housing market is one of the most expensive in the state.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated when the Bend City Council approved a food bank donation in relation to Oregon receiving federal payments for SNAP. OPB regrets the errors.
