Wyoming First Lady Jennie Gordon plans to continue working on her signature program, the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, after her husband leaves the governor’s office.
The food security program provides grants to feed people in Wyoming communities and helps get locally grown fruits, veggies and beef into the bellies of Wyomingites.
“ I think our food security network is in tatters, frankly, in the entire United States,” Gordon said. “I think that there's been a lot of changes, with the Big Beautiful Bill that happened, that has caused states to take on more of the administrative fees for the SNAP benefits.”
Gordon expects more Wyomingites will get kicked off SNAP benefits in the next year due to work requirements.
She said the focus of the Hunger Initiative will now be on educating lawmakers that nonprofits and churches don’t have the capacity to fill the gaps left by federal funding cuts and changes to SNAP.
The Wyoming Food Bank has told WPM that such cuts have led to turbulence for food distribution programs statewide. Instead of getting food from the feds, the Wyoming Food Bank is turning to donations from Walmart and other local sources. They’ve also had to cancel mobile food pantries to help make ends meet.
Gordon said the state will need to step up and help.
”The federal government puts in $62 million a year or so [in Wyoming] for SNAP benefits, and there really is no philanthropic organization or church that can make up that difference should that money not come into the state,” she said.
Gordon said her initiative is no longer part of the Governor’s Residence Foundation but is now its own entity. They recently hired a regional director, reconfigured the board and are now in search of an executive director.
“I think policy is going to be so important, getting our legislators to recognize and understand that we have a need in this state, and it has only grown since 2020, which we thought was the epitome of food insecurity in our state. But it really has increased dramatically since then,” Gordon said.
According to the food security advocacy group Feeding America, Wyoming now has 94,440 people going hungry, about 16% of the state’s population.
