BEATRICE, Neb. - As Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s slow down amid the government shutdown, it’s putting an added strain on area food pantries - something Beatrice Community Food Pantry is seeing first hand.

“Our new clients number has almost doubled in what we had most months… We’re booking more like a week out and people are constantly calling and walking in the door and its just been super busy.”

Cathy Hayden is the director for the food pantry and says, for now, they’ve been able to keep up thanks to area businesses taking on food drive campaigns.

“We’re starting to keep up because we’ve had some big donations come in,” Hayden said. “We’ve also had some people running donation sites for us, and people are really coming out and helping.”

While things are going ok now, Hayden says, the longer the SNAP benefits remain, the more difficult it’ll be for the pantry to keep pace. Therefore, she’s continuing to turn to the community. She says there’s several ways to donate.


“We are open Monday and Thursday, so we can take donations then,” Hayden said. “If people get ahold of me in advance, I can come down and take donations outside of those days… Cash donations work great, sometimes what I can get out of the food bank in Lincoln goes a little further than what someones dollar at the grocery store does.”