SAN ANTONIO – For more than half a century, Inner City Development has responded to the needs of neighborhoods on San Antonio’s West Side.
As food stamp recipients brace for benefits not to be delivered Saturday, Inner City Development is preparing for a potential large increase in demand for its small emergency food pantry.
Co-executive director Patti Radle said clients have already begun to express concern.
“(They are) very, very worried that they will have nothing in a few days,” Radle said. “The consequences are beyond just hunger, you know? It’s stress.”
Radle said the nonprofit is doing its best to keep food on the table for families impacted in order to ease community concerns.
She said while Inner City Development has been “lucky” in receiving donations, Radle is concerned it will still not be enough to feed all the extra mouths that could soon come her way.
“People have been generous,” Radle said. “It’s saying, ‘Well, can you be a little more generous? You’re already a generous person. Can you help a little more?’”
While Radle hopes the shutdown ends soon, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, and others told her that a resolution is still far from being reached.
After completing a tour of the food pantry, Castro said this could shape up to be the longest federal government shutdown in history.
“This is not a record to be proud of, for anyone,” Castro said. “I hope that all sides will get to the table.”
Castro blamed President Donald Trump and Republican congressmembers for “weaponizing people’s hunger” by cutting off funding to SNAP.
“They’re exploiting families’ anxiety over their household budgets,” Castro said.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, fired back, blaming their congressional adversaries for the stalemate in negotiations.
“Our Senate Democrat colleagues are literally taking food out of the mouths of hungry children because of their stubbornness,” Cornyn said on the Senate floor Thursday.
In a statement to KSAT 12, Gonzales said there is only one way to end the shutdown.
“It requires Senate Democrats to approve a clean, no gimmicks funding extension,” Gonzales said.
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