Food insecurity reality for many as pandemic benefits expire, free meals to begin

Aug. 20—As prices at grocery stores continued to rise, Mankato residents and ECHO Food Shelf clients such as Ravi Pandey have had to find alternative ways to get food and supplies such as diapers.

Pandey said he's been coming to ECHO since about 2017 but added that prices became more expensive after the pandemic.

"Milk is expensive. Eggs are expensive," he said.

Pandey said his family also has had to tackle the added challenge of only having one income between himself and his wife.

"Sometimes it's expensive to go shop (at the store.) My wife's not working because she has a prosthetic leg, so I'm just working," he said.

Other clients, such as Mankato resident Sondra Kaye, who chose not to disclose her last name for privacy, said that while pandemic-era benefits ended earlier this year, pandemic-era prices haven't changed.

"It's just not enough with the way that the cost of food (is) now. It's really unbelievable to me the price of everything now. It hasn't gone back down," she said.

Kaye, who said she's been getting free goods from ECHO on and off for a little over a year partly after struggling to get food assistance in her former county, said she started using the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, in July of last year.

"It's good that they did that because the prices just went crazy. Like I said, the prices have not changed. I mean, they've gone up, but they haven't come back down, and everyone needed that. The people that I know who weren't getting food benefits or food assistance, they started receiving them, and they come here now, too, because they just can't do it," she said.

Kaye added that the prices also have changed the way she shops for food.

"You just learn to eat things that go a long way, such as potatoes," she said.

As advocates push for benefits such as SNAP to be included in the next U.S. farm bill, with the current one to expire in September, ECHO Food Shelf Manager Deisy De Leon Esqueda and Assistant Manager Sara Diel said they notice the impact having benefits in place has on the community.

"I believe that the (enhanced) programs that were in place during COVID gave us an idea of what it would look like if those programs were in place. If you were to ask us if they worked, they worked because our numbers went down," Esqueda said.

"It came down to people had food. That's what the programs were meant to do, and that's what they did. People had access to healthy food. I'm hoping that as they're looking at this new farm bill, they take that into consideration."

ECHO's clientele numbers quantify that demand.

"Whatever is happening at the state and the federal level, whenever those programs are being cut or whenever they're able to receive additional funding, we're able to see those changes taking place here at ECHO," Esqueda said.

She said when pandemic support programs were in place, the number of daily clients dropped from an average of 86 to 45.

Diel added that as benefits have been taken away, that number has steadily increased. In July, they served an average of 149 families every day.

"That number's skewed a little bit because we're closed the first week in July, so those families are crammed into three weeks instead of four, but still it's been well over 100 every day," she said.

This month they're serving an average of 120 clients a day.

Their budget has also seen the impact.

ECHO's fiscal year typically begins in July and ends in June. Diel said within six months, they had gone over their annual food budget of $350,000 by an additional $181,000.

"By January we had spent all our money," she said, adding they had to dip into their reserves. "We just kept buying food anyway, but the budget kind of went out the window.

"Some of our supports went away, too. The government commodities, we don't get anywhere near what we used to get."

Esqueda and Diel said just because food insecurity in Blue Earth County isn't always visible, it doesn't mean it's not there.

"I think, when volunteers, new volunteers come here, they're surprised," Diel said.

"Not that you don't pay attention, you just don't know what to look for," Esqueda added.

ECHO staff said they've also seen the impact food insecurity has had on area students.

That number is displayed through their summer feeding program demand, which offers food boxes for kids between the ages of 5 and 18 during the summer.

While other summer programs are out there, Diel said their program helps out families that can't get their kids to those sites.

In 2021, when pandemic programs were in place, ECHO served an average of 618 kids a month. This year, they've served an average of 1,963.

Free meals impact

This year, the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill guaranteeing free breakfast and lunch for public school students in the state.

Local school districts said they've noticed the demand for food support from their students and families.

Le Sueur-Henderson Public Schools Supt. Jim Wagner said this past year about 200 families out of 407 qualified for free and reduced lunch.

When the district gave out free meals during the pandemic, he said they saw about 95% of 920 or so students take advantage.

While that percentage dropped to about 60% when school districts returned to paid meals, Wagner said he expects it to bounce back up this school year.

The increase in families who qualified for free or reduced meals in many districts in the area is due in part to more direct qualification from the state; the process allowed people who qualify for certain programs to also qualify for free and reduced meals.

However, Wagner said his school district is also seeing demand from families moving to the district for work.

"We do have a number of families moving to the area. One of the big draws in our area is having Cambria so close. A lot of families are moving up (to do the work)," he said.

"From that aspect, we're getting more families who are in need coming to the area because they're picking up jobs."

St. Peter Supt. Bill Gronseth said his district had about 850 students who qualified for free and reduced meals, adding that the number is the highest they've had in recent history.

He also said the district served more meals when they were free during the pandemic; the district stopped issuing free meals at the beginning of last school year.

"We heard last year as we started charging once again that it is a burden to families, especially families who have multiple children in the school. That number can get expensive," Gronseth said.

Mankato Area Public Schools had 3,516 students who qualified and participated in free and reduced lunch last year.

Darcy Stueber, director of nutrition services, said that number rose over the last several years, in part due to more direct qualification from the state.

"We saw an increase in participation when meals were free compared to pre-pandemic. I think that's just because families were able to take advantage of the program at that time," Stueber said.

While breakfast and lunch will be free, school districts are still encouraging families to fill out the form they previously completed to qualify for reduced prices, as other funding sources still use that data.