Friday, October 31, 2025–8:20 a.m.
-Dvaid Crowder, WRGA News-
On Saturday, SNAP benefits will stop being paid, as the government shutdown continues.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps, is a federally funded program that provides monthly benefits to low-income households to help pay for the cost of food.
The suspension of benefits for the month of November could not come at a worse time, as we are getting ready to enter the holidays.
14,200 Floyd County residents receive SNAP benefits.
5,500 are children under the age of 17.
5,800 are adults, with 37% of households having one adult working and about half with a disabled adult, and 2,800 are adults over the age of 60 who are on a fixed income.
A number of local organizations are stepping up to try and fill in the gap.
If you need assistance, the United Way of Rome and Floyd County offers a 2-1-1 service line.
“If people can just call 2-1-1, our agreement with service providers is to make sure that we are able to provide up-to-the-minute, boots on the ground, changing data,” said Allison Mitchell Ellard with the United Way of Rome and Floyd County. “For people who need to call in and get food, we can tell them exactly where it is and how to access it—or other services-because they are already calling 2-1-1 for those things. Then our agency partners can also use that to call in and say, ‘Hey, we are out of this, or we need this.’ It’s providing one single entry point that’s a three-digit phone number, and we are managing the relationships. Then we are passing on, referring, and sending, but we are also able to collect the data on what’s really going on, the trends in our community.”
The YMCA is hosting a Food Drive to meet the increasing urgent needs of local families.
Most Needed Items:
• Peanut Butter
• Canned Meat (Chicken or Ham)
• Canned Fruit (Peaches or Pears)
• Hearty Canned Soups
• Instant Mashed Potatoes
• Oatmeal (Instant)
You can drop off donations during YMCA operating hours:
• Monday–Friday: 4:30 AM – 9 PM
• Saturday: 8 AM – 5 PM
• Sunday: 1 PM – 5 PM
If you are a non-profit organization who offers meals for families in need, or if you are having a food collection drive, let us know. You can contact us at [email protected] and we help get the word out.