Listen Community Services volunteer David Muzzy, left, helps Brenda Gould and Keith Stevens in the center's food pantry on Jan. 24, 2019 in Lebanon, N.H. The couple has recently moved to Lebanon. Gould said she used to volunteer at the Claremont, N.H. soup kitchen. "Everyone hits a few bumps," she said. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Listen Community Services volunteer David Muzzy, left, helps Brenda Gould and Keith Stevens in the center's food pantry on Jan. 24, 2019 in Lebanon, N.H. The couple has recently moved to Lebanon. Gould said she used to volunteer at the Claremont, N.H. soup kitchen. "Everyone hits a few bumps," she said. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News — Jennifer Hauck

Lebanon — Food pantries in the Twin States say they’re bracing for the effects of a federal government shutdown that could continue through February, when food assistance programs are expected to run dry.

As the shutdown enters its 35th day, Upper Valley food shelves are preparing donation drives and debating whether it’s now time to dip into reserves to increase the supply of food.

Some warn that action is needed to prevent a “pending crisis” that will come once families run out of benefits provided under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

“Right now, it’s the task of our communities, our people, our businesses and government to come together and rally around this crisis to do anything that we can to try to make sure (the shutdown) doesn’t cause toxic stress for the vulnerable families of our state,” Vermont Food Bank spokeswoman Nicole Whalen said on Thursday.

Nearly 40,000 Vermont households relied on SNAP benefits for food in September 2018, the most recent month data is available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And more than 41,000 Granite State Households receive benefits from the program, which once was known as food stamps.

But those families have faced uncertainty since funding for SNAP expired on Dec. 21, forcing the Department of Agriculture to use a provision of now expired law to continue payments another 30 days. That’s why both Vermont and New Hampshire issued February benefits on Sunday, more than two weeks early.

“Since everybody received benefits early, we’re really worried about a spike of traffic in mid-February,” said Whalen, who warned that food banks then could be the sole source of aid until the government reopens.

“That would be a huge crisis for people in need throughout the United States and here in Vermont,” she said.

For every one meal distributed by food banks nationwide, SNAP provides 12, Whalen said. And it’s not certain that food banks and pantries could make up that difference, if the program ends.

The Vermont Food Bank alone has taken $50,000 out of reserves to purchase additional food, just in case, she said. But officials predict another $200,000 could be needed to fully stock shelves throughout the state.

Officials also are predicting an uptick in need across the Connecticut River. But the New Hampshire Food Bank is “in a good position inventory wise,” said Eileen Groll Liponis, the organization’s executive director.

Liponis said the food bank is in touch with its partners — Catholic Charities of New Hampshire and Feeding America — about the need for more aid, as the shutdown continues.

“We are watching the news and hoping this unnecessary crisis ends soon,” she said. “I don’t think anyone expected it to last this long.”

Listen Community Services, which operates a food pantry in Lebanon, says it also is preparing for higher demand. The group plans to host a meeting with other food shelves this morning to discuss how they can better coordinate come mid-February.

“We are looking into purchasing more when and if we have to,” said Kyle Fisher, executive director of Listen. (The situation) is going to be challenging for us all.”

Food shelves across the Upper Valley so far haven’t been affected by the shutdown, partly because there’s fewer federal employees and contractors in the area, said Carolyn Cusick, of Friends of Mascoma, which operates pantries in Enfield, Canaan and at Mascoma Valley Regional High School.

Two of the largest government employers in the Upper Valley, the VA Medical Center in White River Junction and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, have largely been unaffected by the shutdown as their parent agencies locked in their funding in prior appropriations bills.

Michael Redmond, the executive director of the Upper Valley Haven, said the food shelf at the White River Junction-based nonprofit has been busier than typical over the past couple of weeks, but “there is no evidence yet that it’s related to the federal government’s partial shutdown.”

The Haven has added a question to its intake survey to ask if clients are there because of a furlough or loss of government funding, and so far, “nobody has said we are here for the first time because of the shutdown,” Redmond said earlier this week.

But both he and Cusick said their organizations are “really worried” about a surge in demand if SNAP benefits are affected.

“We are monitoring the situation very closely and will be determining how we have to respond if additional impacts on the community occur with the continuing shutdown,” Redmond said.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.