It’s been a rough couple years for food banks and the families they serve, particularly for the Weld Food Bank in Evans’ home county. Demand has been skyrocketing ever since the pandemic’s expanded SNAP benefits ended in March 2023.
In the following six months, the Weld Food Bank saw its monthly visits increase from 9,200 to over 14,000, according to Communications Director Weston Edmunds. Then the Trump Administration took office and started slashing grants and programs, including the Local Foods for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement (LFPA) that provided over $13M of assistance in Colorado. The Weld Food Bank lost $400,000 it had planned to spend on refrigerated trucks and a forklift. They also had to cancel orders for 120,000 pounds of protein and dairy items that was going to be purchased from Colorado farmers.
Today, 30,000 Coloradans a month go to the Weld Food Bank. If the budget bill passes in its current form, those numbers are sure to go up.
“This really cannot be understated. This will be the most significant rollback of federal nutrition programs in American history if it’s enacted, and it will have a devastating impact.“
This blunt assessment of the potential damage posed by Trump’s budget bill comes from Ron Meehan, Government Relations Manager for Feeding Colorado, a coalition of five major food banks in the state. Last week they sent a team to Washington, D.C. to explain to Colorado’s congressional delegation the importance of preserving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
As part of their lobbying efforts, Feeding Colorado advocates managed to get a meeting with a legislative aide for Gabe Evans (R-CO08), who’s been the most vocal supporter of the bill among Colorado Republicans. Meehan says they shared their ongoing concerns with the version currently being considered by the Senate.
“A lot of the biggest concerns that we have with the [budget reconciliation] package are still included,” says Meehan. “Things like the state cost share, which could end up leaving Colorado on the hook for somewhere between $135 and $195 million just in the costs for [SNAP] benefits, which is unprecedented. There’s also and end to the 50-50% split in administrative costs that have historically been covered by the feds, which will cost Colorado another $98.2M.”
Meehan describes SNAP as a lifeline for rural Coloradans, a point Feeding Colorado has made repeatedly on social media. He also noted that the bill’s passage would have a trickle-down effect on local farmers, some of whom do up to 90% of their business through farmer’s markets that take SNAP.
“Looking into the future, these SNAP cuts that could take food off of people’s tables- they’ve got to get that food from somewhere,” says Edmunds. “And if people lose Medicaid and they have to get on private insurance, that takes more money off the table to put towards food, they then will need to turn to food banks. We will not be able to shoulder whatever cuts they come up with. What they have [cut] already is not enough. And so if they’re going to cut that back, it’s just going to hurt more people than it’s going to help.”
Feeding Colorado’s D.C. visit wasn’t Evans first conversation with food bank advocates. Both Meehan and Edmunds met Evans earlier this month when he toured the Weld Food Bank, less than 30 miles from his own hometown of Fort Lupton. The tour took place just days after his vote to pass the budget bill out of committee.
Edmunds says he appreciated Evans’ willingness to take the time to visit and listen.
“It was a good conversation, says Edmunds. “One of the more engaged representatives that we’ve had- he was taking notes and asking questions. It was great for us to feel like we were heard, because we don’t often get visits here from people.”
Evans tour included a photo op, which he later shared on Facebook. “I recently had the chance to visit Weld County Food Bank to learn more about how they’re serving our community and making a difference in the lives of local families. Grateful for their dedication to serving #CO08.”
Asked if the conversation was at all awkward considering Evans’ recent vote, Edmunds says they made sure to stick to sharing information.
“We kept pretty cordial, because we understand, too, that we wanted to just present the facts. We were honest with him to just give him the numbers. ‘Here’s what the look like when those SNAP allocations went away in 2023, and what it looks like now. And our concerns of what it’s going to look like should the [bill pass], with $295 billion cut from SNAP. What that would look like impacting food banks, impacting people in his community that he represents, that we told him the same thing, we will not be able to shoulder this should it go through. We hope we got our point across that we’re not ready for what’s coming, should it go the way it went.”
Following that conversation, the way it went is that almost all House Republicans, including Evans, overcame bipartisan opposition to pass the bill by a single vote. It’s now in the Senate, which Republicans control by a 53-47 margin. They will likely to pass their own version this week, which will then give the House one more vote to concur with the Senate’s changes.
Evans’ office did not respond to a request for comment on his staffer’s meeting with Feeding Colorado last week, or whether he has a plan for addressing the reduction in food aid families in his district will experience if the budget bill passes in its current form. This article will be updated with any response received.
“Should this pass, our community is incredibly generous, but we just don’t know how, even with that generosity, we would be able to make it work,” says Edmunds. “The bottom line of it is that we just won’t be able to give people as much food as we want. We may not be able to help people in the way that they need it and the way we want to help them, but we’ll still operate. It’s not going to shut us down… We’re not a government entity; we’ll still be here to work. It’s just going to make our job so much harder.”
