Local Leaders Face $460,000 Monthly Shortfall in Federal Food Benefits
Trevor Phipps
Over the last few weeks, the federal government shutdown has caused negative impacts all across the country.
As the legislative impasse continues in the U.S. Senate over a reopening date for many critical Uncle Sam services, SNAP Benefits (formerly called food stamps) will not be sent out to any state for the month of November. This is just the first major example of how the current budget crisis is hitting home and hurting local residents in a major way.
In fact, if the scenario doesn’t change soon, the shutdown will continue to create problems and threaten those who receive monthly SNAP benefits and other social service programs in the future. The situation has created what Teller County leaders are dubbing a “perfect storm” as a lack of funds and furloughed workers add to the local impact of people not receiving their SNAP benefits.
As soon as the news got out that SNAP benefits would not be available for this month, the Teller County commissioners called for a special meeting on Oct. 28 to address the issue. All three mayors in the county were present, along with representatives from local businesses, school districts, faith-based organizations, food pantries and other local nonprofits.
The purpose of the meeting was to brainstorm ideas on how the local communities can get together and help raise funds and food to help people who will not be getting their monthly food benefits. “We haven’t declared an emergency for two reasons,” County Commission Chairman Dan Williams said at the special meeting. “For one, we only do that when we need help i.e. money, assets. There is no money and no assets. The idea for today is that we make sure if it’s not an emergency that we step in at the appropriate time.”
Overall, about 3,000 people (10 percent of the county’s population) receive SNAP benefits. The overall money given to those who qualify equals approximately $460,000 per month.
Earlier this year, local first responders launched a massive food drive effort that raised around $12,000 worth of food. The county is now faced with quite a bigger challenge.
During the meeting, ideas circulated that included creating a website and one central hub where people can donate food and money to one universal cause. Local government entities, such as Teller County, local cities and school districts, plan to use their facilities and assets for storage and transportation. Moreover, all of the schools and city halls offered to host food drives during which people can bring needed non-perishable items.
“To collect donations of food and monetary resources, we’re going to pool it all together so that the organizations that are serving people can focus on serving people and that they can go to these collective resources and take what they need to keep their operations going so we don’t have to spend our time trying to figure out and collect resources for this operation that’s being done for us, we can just access it when we need it,” Jodi Mijarez, CEO of the Community Partnership Family Resource Center in Woodland Park told KOAA News 5.
Lack of SNAP Benefits Comes at a Bad Time
At the start of the year, local food pantries were already experiencing an increase in demand for their services. According to Mijarez, the local need for food has increased by 25 percent since the start of 2025. That reality, coupled with a decrease of 25 percent in state and federal funds available has created the “perfect storm.”
To make matters worse over the last six weeks, the local food pantries have seen a 50 percent increase in overall demand from what they encountered last year. Moreover, the end in SNAP benefits is taking place just before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays
And according to county officials, the government shutdown has also caused the special supplemental nutritional program for women, infants and children (WIC) to also not be able to give food to those in need. The lack of WIC funds affects over 300 pregnant/breast feeding women and infants within the county.
And unfortunately, the Republican versus Democrat fight at the national level has created major local impacts to Teller’s most vulnerable populations (infants and senior citizens) right before the holiday season. To make matters worse, most political experts don’t see an end to the looming government shutdown. Both major parties are not budging in reaching an agreement, with federal leaders appearing more interested in appealing to their base constituents than coming up with a solution.
