Mecklenburg County will support local food resources around the county as SNAP benefits are interrupted and reduced this month.
County officials said they will provide $740,000 to community and food resource partners in the county. The funding will go towards 28,000 additional seven day food boxes to Nourish Up, provide one time $50 farmers market vouchers and expanded mobile market food distribution for SNAP seniors.
The county is using the funding as a stopgap to minimize the impact of the delay of SNAP benefits. In Mecklenburg County, over 138,000 people receive money to buy food from SNAP. County Manager Mike Bryant said the stopgap funding, along with aid from nonprofits, will help for about a month.
"That would cover us for about 4 weeks, so about a month, and then some of the others are really first come first serve as well.," Bryant said. "We are prepared if necessary to take another look at our resources to see what we have available should it be necessary to provide additional support beyond this up to 30 days relief that we're providing."
As Thanksgiving approaches, there will be a turkey distribution at the Ella B Scarborough Community Resource Center on November 22nd that will serve about one thousand households.
