Back in November, the Trump administration paused SNAP benefits to millions of Americans as part of the federal government shutdown. About 28,000 Wyomingites access those benefits each month.
In response, Governor Mark Gordon declared a public welfare emergency and started the temporary Hunger Relief Program to fill in the SNAP-gap. Over the course of two weeks, the program distributed $2.4 million to food pantries around the state to fill in the services gap and ended when the government reopened in mid-November.
The Wyoming Department of Family Services administered the Hunger Relief Program and recently put out a report detailing the program’s impacts, challenges and takeaways. Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann talked with Department of Family Services spokesperson Kelly Douglas to learn more.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Kelly Douglas: The Hunger Relief Program really relied on food pantries, and these are food pantries that operate statewide. There were about 80 food pantries that participated. They reported to us their September, October, and November numbers so that we could have a good comparison.
In September, there were about 50,000 people who used the food pantries, in October, there were about 53,000 people and in November, when we had the Hunger Relief Program, there were about 74,000 people. So we saw about 20,000 more people total served through these pantries.
Hannah Habermann: That's definitely a big jump, a big increase. What were some of the on-the-ground successes over the two weeks of the program?
KD: We asked the pantries to report back to us and we heard some great stories. There's a pantry in Evanston, the Lord's Storehouse, they distributed groceries to about 4,200 people in November.
They were talking about going to the local grocery store and none of the local grocery stores could facilitate a bulk purchase. They hadn't bought in bulk before because they hadn't had this program, so they were at the store and they rang up more than a hundred items, several hundred items, one by one.
The purchase came to $1,200, and the grocery store then donated $1,000 toward that cost, and the food pantry had only a $200 bill for all those groceries.
The Afton Food Pantry is volunteer-run. They really scaled up through this program. They were serving 400 people in September, 600 in October and 900 in November. So they were able to extend their hours and buy more groceries to help people.
They were contacted by the town of Cokeville, which is about an hour away, and Cokeville had SNAP recipients who were not receiving their SNAP and they had seniors who were not able to get to the food pantry because Cokeville didn't have one. And so these Afton volunteers took groceries to Cokeville.
HH: What were some of the challenges of implementing this program, and do you all have any takeaways for if SNAP benefits were paused again in the future?
KD: Some of the challenges faced at the local level, especially, were scaling up and finding volunteers, trying to be able to extend their hours if they weren't able to find volunteers, running out of food, finding boxes or bags to put the food in, managing long lines, having traffic issues and overwhelming grocery stores.
The Food Bank of Wyoming was a big part of this program, and they are able to buy in bulk through distributors that they use, and then they were able to distribute [that food]. So that helped too.
We approached the legislature during committee to talk about our budget as a result of the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act. States are going to pay more for administrative costs for SNAP and that's beginning in October 2026. We've requested $5.9 million in our two-year budget for this administrative cost.
If we do not receive that money, we do not know if the [SNAP] program will continue after October.
HH: Well, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on what happens with that funding.
Earlier, you were talking about the connection with the Food Bank and this network. First Lady Jennie Gordon started the Wyoming Hunger Initiative back in 2019. How did that organization help make this Hunger Relief Program happen?
KD: During the program, we had daily calls with the Wyoming Hunger Initiative. They were able to help us connect with food pantries. They already had established these channels and they knew the food pantry capacities and they knew the contact information.
To stand up a program in days, you really need that network to already exist and to have that help.
HH: Another thing in the report is some information about food-related requests to Wyoming 211. That's a call line and online database that helps people connect to resources around the state. What were some of the trends this year to Wyoming 211?
KD: We reported with 211 that they did see requests for food pantries and the request for food meals rise, beginning in September, and it was way over last year. We did know there was a need in the community.
We encourage anyone to reach out to Wyoming 211, it's a valuable resource. The number’s 2-1-1, just dial that, or they have a website, which is wyoming211.org.
HH: Zooming out, how has food insecurity changed in Wyoming over the past five, 10 years? Has it gone up? Has it gone down? Has it stayed the same?
KD: We know people are struggling and we know they have been for some time. We've taken part in recent food assessment reports and they're on our website … under the “About” tab and under “Data and Reports.”
There was a 2023 Wyoming Foodscape Report, and they noted five counties that had food insecurity rates over 12%.
Our most recent report was the Wyoming Food Systems Assessment and it has a map of food deserts. It looks at population density, poverty levels, geographic distances and distances to food pantries, grocery stores, and convenience stores. And they found hotspots in some counties.
The overlap between those two reports were a couple counties. Albany and Fremont counties were consistently in hotspots, then you also saw some other counties that had some real food insecurity issues like we saw in Cokeville. There's no food pantry, it's a small town. That can be tough for people.
HH: In some of these areas of greater need, what do you think contributes to that increased need?
KD: When you don't have food, that's a crisis and that can cause you to have to make budget decisions. Or are you going to buy groceries, pay rent, buy medicine?
That can be a real crisis for people and can lead to other issues and we don't want people to have to go through that. What we want is for people to be safe in their homes and have what they need, and we want people in Wyoming to be healthy.
HH: How do you think the state, the federal government, and local organizations should collaborate to address hunger in Wyoming moving forward?
KD: We're really proud of the work we've been able to do and the connections we've been able to make. We know we can always improve and we're always looking at the data and looking at what's worked and what hasn't. Having the food pantries report back and having daily meetings with our partners was really helpful to be able to improve every part of this kind of work.
HH: Anything else you'd like to add?
KD: It was an amazing feat that so many food pantries were able to participate. They were able to take extra groceries, provide extra volunteer hours and scale up, even if they couldn't find the volunteers.
Even if they were having issues, they found a way through and they were able to feed their communities. That was a large task, it was an immediate task and it was certainly a success story.
We're grateful to the governor for creating the program. The Wyoming Hunger Initiative, the Food Bank of Wyoming and Wyoming 211 all shared their networks and resources, and they helped make this a success.
We were able to feed more than 20,000 more people than the month before. That's fantastic.
