SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipient McKinley stands in one of the longest lines at Community Cooperative’s soup kitchen hours before the most recent government shutdown became the longest in U.S. history. Reluctant to provide his last name, he said his SNAP benefits were revoked, making it even more difficult to secure food each day than before. He added that he has a tough time staying warm as a resident of Southwest Florida since the 1990s, especially at night.

“I've had to go between here and a couple of other places as I am looking to find food, especially due to the climate change,” McKinley said. “It makes it a lot harder to maintain, like for me, myself, I have a hard time staying warm.”

He said the main thing that helps keep him warm is eating. But as Florida’s winter approaches with no sign of bipartisan cooperation between Congress and the president to help lift the shutdown and the SNAP benefit lapse, McKinley said he is worried about how hard it will be to not only eat this holiday season but also stay warm.

“It’s a necessity for the most part, for those that are in need and for those families that already have a hard time income-wise, it’d be best for them to be able to have it than not have it,” McKinley said. “It does bring some ease to things and takes away a bit of the stress on the families in terms of having to worry about food.”

Rodney Leon Dickerson also stood in Sam’s Community Café & Kitchen line, Community Cooperative’s soup kitchen, waiting for a hot meal he said he once had the capacity to buy with his benefits.

“Everybody is pretty much in a bind right now,” Dickerson said. “…for me, it’s like relying on the government, which I really don’t want to rely on the government, because I want to get out and work and get my own money and be able to support my own self without relying on the government.”

A Perfect Storm

Stefanie Ink Edwards, CEO of Community Cooperative, said that this need, demand, and dependence on the program’s benefits is more apparent now than ever amid the shutdown.

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The Fort Myers soup kitchen opened in 1984 and later evolved into Community Cooperative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing food to low-income and homeless populations throughout Southwest Florida through various distribution methods depending on the needs of the clients.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

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Volunteers guide clients and families through Community Cooperative’s Community Market. As of July 1, visits to the market are by appointment only, no longer accepting walk-ins—a plan aimed at improving the client experience and limiting wait times.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

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Community Cooperative’s Community Market provides various nonperishable foods for clients, from canned meats to macaroni and cheese, allowing clients to store goods at their home without them spoiling.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

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Community Cooperative’s Community Market also provides refrigerated products, from eggs to meats, for clients who have the means to store them properly.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

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Community Cooperative acquires food for clients through different modes—community partnerships, collaborations with local organizations such as the Harry Chapin Food Bank, food rescues with local businesses like Walmart and Publix where volunteers pick up food that would otherwise be discarded, and donations from the public, including both food and financial contributions. Occasionally, if the cooperative is running low on certain products, it purchases them for client use.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

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The cooperative also grows its own produce in its Able Gardens to supplement donations from other sources. This ensures that, because produce has a short shelf life, more fresh fruits and vegetables are available for clients at one time, giving them a greater chance to choose produce over other products if they wish. Crops grown on-site include bananas, eggplant, and leafy greens. Clients are also able to take produce plants home from the market, allowing them to grow their own food.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

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The cooperative operates a soup kitchen called Sam’s Community Café & Kitchen, which provides hot and nutritious meals to members of the Southwest Florida community who are unable to provide for themselves on a regular basis. The café is open Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to noon and is open to the public.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

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Meals On Wheels of Southwest Florida is another initiative operated by the cooperative. It delivers nutritious meals to people who may not have the capacity to cook or shop for themselves. The program also serves homebound elderly members of the community, currently providing more than 1,000 seniors with meals and care products for their pets.

Samuel Brucker / Community Cooperative

Community Cooperative is a nonprofit organization located in Fort Myers that aids low-income, homeless, and elderly populations with acquiring food through different programs and distribution methods.

“Coming to a food pantry can be a really humbling and difficult experience for people, especially if they’ve never done it before,” Ink Edwards said. “So, we work really hard to make sure it’s a really qualitative experience. But I can tell you, as quickly as we are purchasing and getting things donated and having things go on the shelves, they’re going right back out the door, and that was even before the government shutdown.”

Ink Edwards said that last year, they served about 5,000 clients in the Community Market alone and that by the end of this year, that number is on track to double to nearly 10,000 clients.

“…Just with costs of living and food prices and now, you know, benefits potentially not being there—people are scared, and they’re trying to do what they can to scramble to keep food on their tables for their own families,” Ink Edwards said.

Rocking the Boat

But Ink Edwards said that the situation is compounded even further by an additional variable—a variable she said is adding to the stress surrounding the situation for nearly 3 million Floridians who depend on SNAP, as of 2022 according to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, and more than and 40 million Americans nationwide as of 2024, according to USDA Economic Research Service.

“Here at the Community Cooperative, with the amount of misinformation that is out there, people are scared,” Ink Edwards said. “People don’t know what’s going to be happening…what does partial benefits mean? Are they coming back? Are they never coming back?”

This leaves nonprofit organizations to pick up the pieces and preserve remaining hope, which Ink Edwards said they are not designed to do for extensive periods of time. Even so, she said that the cooperative has adapted, adding 50% more appointments than last week, creating more opportunities for clients to shop at the Community Market as well as adding three additional mobile food pantries to the already 15 monthly delivery operations.

But even with this increase, McKinley said he sees around his community how it’s still not nearly enough to support the families continuously feeling the impacts.

“I spend a lot of time with people in the neighborhood, and sometimes, I know it’s a struggle, especially when they have children…and being able to put food on the table and be comfortable with being able to pay the bills as well making everything efficient, it puts a lot of stress within the household,” McKinley said.

A Shared Vision

Ink Edwards said they even ran out of food on their last couple of mobile food pantry runs, so she’s turning to the Southwest Florida community to pitch in any resources they can for individuals and families dealing with this complication with no sign of expiration.

“I would love to say to everybody in Southwest Florida, if you’re in a position to help—whether it’s $1, donating one can of food to your local food pantry or one hour of volunteerism—do something,” Ink Edwards said. “We, as the nonprofit world, especially your small food pantries, we need your support now more than ever.”

She said only with this help from the community—whether it be through food donations, financial contributions or volunteerism—will they be able to weather the storm of uncertainty and continue providing for their clients now and in the future.

“I’m really proud of the work that we do—my staff, my volunteers—everybody’s really amazing, pulling together and the generosity of Southwest Florida is such an important piece, too,” Ink Edwards said. “We’ve seen horrible things happen here with hurricanes and the pandemic. We will get through this, and I know there’ll be a lot of people in the community that want to step up and help organizations like ours to continue to meet the need, because no one deserves to go hungry.”

For more information, visit Community Cooperative and SNAP.

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