Filling the SNAP Gap Together

Gift cards purchased with funds from Glimmer Austin and JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness foundations were distributed to 460 households living in 49 different zip codes.

Just some of the snack packs distributed before kids are out of school for a week.

When the federal shutdown dragged on long enough to disrupt SNAP (“food stamps”) benefits for more than 85,000 of our Austin neighbors, our community sprang into action. The truth is, people were already struggling, and the challenges haven’t eased, even with SNAP fully restored.

Rising grocery prices, new SNAP eligibility changes that began November 1, higher insurance premiums, and uncertainty around Affordable Care Act subsidies are putting even more strain on families. Many are confronting, for the first time, what it means to choose between food and medical care.

With the holidays approaching, the pressure is growing. Families want the simple joy of gathering around a table, yet many don’t know how they’ll afford their holiday meals. School closures also mean many children will lose access to the only consistent nutritious meals they receive during the week.

When JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Foundation asked how they could best support families affected by the SNAP delays, our answer was immediate: “grocery gift cards, so people can still buy exactly what they need.” Soon after, Glimmer Austin stepped up, offering to match the donation, and asking what more they could help us do.

With Glimmer Austin’s generous “Fill the SNAP Gap” funds, Keep Austin Fed quickly mapped out a multi-pronged plan. Since our model relies almost entirely on rescuing surplus food from local businesses, we couldn’t simply “create” more food donations, but timing worked in our favor. We picked up twice a day from a new Sweetgreen in West Lake Hills, providing more than 2,700 fresh meals during their training week, and the new Trader Joe’s in Bee Cave contributed over 8,000 pounds of surplus groceries to be shared with our neighbors.

Our community partners stepped up, too. Abbott Labs and Jacobs Engineering assembled more than 300 kid-friendly snack bags for families whose children would be out of school for Thanksgiving break. And as the Giving Season approached, we launched virtual fresh-food drives with Amplify Credit Union and Ghisallo Cycling through GiveHealthy.org, resulting in over 1,000 pounds of produce donated in November alone.

Thanks to the incredible support from Glimmer Austin and JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Foundation, we’ve distributed $23,000 in HEB gift cards to 460 households and this month, we’re on track to share over 100,000 pounds of food for the first time this year.

But the need doesn’t end there. Students will be out of school even longer next month, and many food pantries will close between Christmas and New Year. With the remaining “Fill the SNAP Gap” funds from Glimmer Austin, we’ll continue finding every way possible to keep our community nourished - today, tomorrow, and every day. Hunger doesn’t take a holiday, and neither will we.

If you’d like to join our efforts, we’d love to hear from you.