Constant lines is what we’ve been seeing for hours as people slowly make their way to the Kern County Fairgrounds on Monday. This distribution comes after the continuation of the government shutdown, leaving many to wonder where their next meal will come from.
“Well right now we really need this, I mean with the food stamps being cutting off and the holidays being near like this is crucial, we need this. If we didn’t have this I don’t know what we would do,” said Mina, a food distribution recipient.
Mina is just one of hundreds of people who spent hours in line waiting to be able to provide food for their families.
The distribution took place at the Kern County Fairgrounds, people weren’t just coming to any kind of food bank, these are all impacted families from the government shutdown taking away SNAP benefits.
“This is such a big help because I don’t work and I have three kids and I don’t have enough money to feed them. Only my husband works but what he’s making just isn’t enough,” said Mabely Segovia.
With November 3rd marking 33 days since the shutdown many SNAP recipients have still not received their food benefits for November.
Is SNAP something you typically rely on?
“Yes every month,” said one recipient.
“I do but a lot of people do, it’s kind of embarrassing to some people but hey you need food you need food,” said another recipient.
Speaking with Cap-K officials, they say they’re prepared to provide food boxes for anywhere between 2,000 and 3,000 people, and the lines were long... wrapping around the fairgrounds, which is why, the National Guard has come in to help.
“It’s important and impactful because you know this is our community this is what the national guard does,” said first sergeant Anthony Bush. “Our entire mission is to support our community wherever we are at so, anything that happens in California, these are our people we have to take care of them.”
Families will be receiving things like rice, bread, canned goods, and more — and speaking with local volunteers they say, it’s community effort to help those who need it most.
“Were concerned about babies, kids, elderly, were concerned about every single here in our community we want to make sure that every single person is having the food they need because we know food insecurity is real,” said Shaw.
As a reminder, this is only day 1 of CAP-K’s distribution efforts at the fair grounds, with more coming to the rest of the county later this week.
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