Above photo: Volunteers at Crossroads Women’s Center. Rasheed Ajamu / Germantown Info Hub.
Germantown’s grassroots organizations are coordinating to fill widening food access gaps.
A glimpse at how local networks are holding the line as federal support falls through.
Linda James-Rivera says she’s seeing some of the highest levels of food insecurity in her Philadelphia communities since she founded the Northwest Mutual Aid Collective during the pandemic.
“I just signed up five families in two days,” James-Rivera says of the group’s free delivery service, providing fresh produce and pantry essentials to seniors, disabled residents and low-income families across Northwest Philly. “That is the first time that has ever happened.”
With the government shutdown still underway, she is one of many organizational leaders preparing for Nov. 1, when approximately 42 million citizens across the nation will lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, food benefits.
The upcoming SNAP stoppage will compound the existing effects of recent changes to work requirements for SNAP eligibility through Trump’s H.R. 1 Bill, which cut funds for state food and health assistance programs that have either halted or reduced benefits for low-income families.
Of the 2 million people in Pennsylvania receiving SNAP, nearly 472,000 reside in the Philadelphia area. As the shutdown has ended federal funding for the food benefits program, there are also new work requirements and health exemptions that people across the state will have to meet to maintain assistance, as detailed on the Commonwealth’s website.
Pennsylvania is one of 25 states suing the Trump administration over the suspension of SNAP food benefits, claiming that it is illegally withholding funds essential to fighting food insecurity.
Families across the Northwest and the city as a whole are already feeling the impact. Local organizations at the forefront of food justice have observed similar trends among the locals who use their services and are now preparing for an unprecedented level of need.
Northwest Mutual Aid Collective
The five-year-old Northwest Mutual Aid Collective offers two main services to combat food insecurity and provide fresh food and produce for communities in need.
Its home delivery program drops off produce and pantry staples to local seniors, disabled residents, and low-income families every Saturday, currently serving 80 households. About 85% of those they support are seniors, who are increasingly concerned about how the shutdown will impact them.
The organization’s pantry support program provides fresh food to 20 local organizations, including community fridges, food cupboards, churches, step-down houses and other nonprofits.
Now, as the people they serve have been further impacted by SNAP changes, executive director James-Rivera is already seeing unprecedented growth in the number of residents that her organization will now have to support.
“We would get a family a week or maybe a family every two weeks… The [sign-ups] have doubled and tripled some cases,” she says.
Those who rely on SNAP are being forced to make unbearable choices through recent changes, she says. One resident Northwest Mutual Aid Collective serves had been receiving $296 in SNAP benefits monthly; that’s now down to $46 a month.
“That’s a big difference. What are you going to do with $46?” James-Rivera asked. “She said that if it wasn’t for us, she wouldn’t be able to buy her medicine because she would have to focus on food.”
But the mutual aid organization foresaw this future. “We’ve been planning for this day,” she said.
A food and medical resource guide has been in the works at the collective since June, so that all residents they serve in zip codes 19144, 19119, 19138, 19129, and 19128 will know of multiple nearby options for support. The group is also talking to local farmers to increase the organization’s access to food.
The collective is also partnering with Center in the Park, a nonprofit senior community center in Germantown, on an emergency utility fund that provides local seniors with assistance when they need it most.
“America is on a slippery slope, and it’s going to bottom out. When it bottoms out, we want to still be able to help our people,” Rivera says. “We’re trying to set ourselves up so that when this thing crashes out, we’re still standing as a source for people in the northwest section.”
Crossroads Women’s Center
At the Crossroads Women’s Center, a community-based, self-help center for local women in need of information and different forms of assistance, community members’ concerns have already taken the center by storm.
“We had a number of women in our center who have been talking about the crisis, and some of them are going to lose their food stamps because of the new requirements,” says co-founder Phoebe Jones.
Jones says a big part of their efforts will be connecting people in need to legal information about the work requirements and exemptions to maintain SNAP.
Under the mandate, Pennsylvania non-exempt residents have to show that they’re working, volunteering or in a school or training program in order to keep benefits. Crossroads Women’s Center is therefore looking to make it clear that volunteers in the center should fall under that category, and will have a focus on “documenting their caregiving.”
“The whole purpose at the center is to value and get resources for caregiving work. We’re establishing that caregiving and raising children is work,” Jones said. “We’re raising children and taking care of elderly dependents. Some caregivers will be able to prove it, but a lot of people can’t; they can’t easily document all the caregiving work they’re doing.”
Organizing informational events is another focus, which aims to help neighbors with navigating the legal ways of keeping benefits.
On Oct. 25, Philly Voice for Change, in collaboration with Community Legal Services (CLS) and the Family Justice Clinic Temple Legal Aid Office, held their Community Education Legal Session at the center. There, community members spoke with legal experts one-on-one about changes to SNAP work requirements and exemptions, how to document their work to keep assistance, and other legal issues.
On Nov. 21, the center will co-host its ‘SNAP Defense Training’ event in collaboration with CLS, where similar information will be given as the center will strategize on how to deal with the new effects of the government shutdown.
Carolyn Hill, a coordinating member of the center whose benefits will be affected at age 65 due to the shutdown, adds that the greater neighborhood economy will be affected as well.
“These people love to eat at restaurants and stores selling food on every corner around here, so if we don’t have no money or stamps, they won’t care to sell no food and that’s going to mess them up,” she says.
Face To Face Germantown
Face to Face Germantown has been a cornerstone for food justice in the neighborhood since its founding in 1984. Since then, the organization has expanded to serve multiple meals a day, five days a week, to low-income individuals.
Ava Obrecht, housing attorney at Face to Face, has heard more and more community members she interacts share concerns about food insecurity recently.
“There’s a lot of panic. A lot of people have been telling me they already feel like times are tough right now, and that this is just making everything so much worse,” Obrecht says. “Seniors are especially confused and are saying, ‘I’m not sure if I’m going to have food stamps anymore… I don’t know.’”
Face to Face has started giving weekly presentations in its dining hall that provide updates on SNAP changes and how people can be protected. They’ve also been passing out medical exemption forms for ones who may qualify.
“We’re really trying to educate because a part of it is that people have no idea how they’ll be affected or if they’ll be affected,” Obrecht says. “And an obvious concern is that people who shouldn’t be affected will be affected.”
The housing attorney says Face to Face has been exploring ways to offer volunteer opportunities to those who don’t meet exemption requirements because they recognize how “crucial” they are to their guests.
The organization already averages more than 100 people for lunch daily. Face to Face expects that number will soon spike.
“As people lose benefits, that number is going to go up. There’s no way it won’t,” Obrecht says.
“Thankfully, we have great community partners for our food supply. But I imagine that the kitchen is anticipating an influx of people starting in November, growing even more in December… as we go into the cold winter months.”
Germantown Community Fridge
Organizers of Germantown Community Fridge, which has two locations in the neighborhood, have seen a spike in usage since locals began losing food assistance.
“There’s times that our volunteers aren’t really able to put food into the fridges because people are just there waiting for someone to come fill it up,” says communications coordinator Shannon Sims. A family of four recently told Sims their SNAP benefits were being halved.
She also notes a decline in donations to the fridge from other organizations, prompting the fridge organizers to find other resorts to keep an abundance of food for community members.
“We’re figuring out little scrappy ways to do this, like doing canned food drives at places,” Sims adds. “We’re looking into fundraising options for us, potentially dine and donate type of stuff, so we can raise funds to get more grocery shops into our fridges.”
Organizers are still working on a more strategic plan to keep locals fed, stating that they’re doing what they can “to put full throttle into resources, [while talking] with neighbors to see what needs are necessarily meant.”
To accommodate an even heavier spike after Nov. 1, Sims is also working to compile a list of other food pantries and fridges in the area that neighbors can use as a resource if their fridges are empty at a given time.
“Neighbors are definitely feeling it, and they’re making it known that they’re feeling it. We hear stories from parents and elders about their life situations,” Sims says.
“It’s hard, but I know Germantown is gritty and we find ways to support each other in any way we can.”
Weavers Way Co-Op
Weavers Way, with store locations in Germantown, Mt. Airy, Chestnut Hill and Roxborough, has launched its Cooperative Food Fund, which is designed to provide temporary cash assistance to Weavers Way Co-op members who receive SNAP, WIC or TANF benefits. Residents who receive SNAP or other nutrition-based government assistance can sign up to receive benefits from the fund by contacting the membership office.
According to a news release from general manager Jon Roesser, the fund has been seeded with $5,000 to start, which was transferred from the Co-op’s cash reserves.
“Until this crisis is over, at the beginning of each week the fund will be used to provide Easy Pay credits to affected Co-op members,” Roesser says. “Up to $50 a week for a one-person household, and up to $125 a week for a multi-person household. The exact amount of money we can provide each week will be determined by the amount of money in the relief fund.”
This story was produced through our Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship, which is made possible with support from the Knight Foundation.
