The community food pantry at Apison Baptist Church in Apison, Tennessee, saw an uptick in demand this past November when the government shutdown disrupted SNAP benefits, forcing families to seek emergency food assistance.
On one Friday in November, 61 new family units sought help after SNAP payments were held up, emptying the church’s dozen or so commercial refrigerators and freezers down to a few packets of hot dogs.
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Some families arrived as early as 8 a.m., wrapped in blankets, waiting two hours in line to ensure they could get food for their households.
“But the shelves are full again,” said Macil Duncan, Apison Baptist’s senior pastor. “So I call it our small miracle. It’s like the feeding of the 5,000, and we don’t know how.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Zoë Watkins and originally published by Tennessee’s Baptist and Reflector.
