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SNAP benefits are set to run out in less than a week amid the ongoing government shutdown.
The potential that thousands of people could go hungry has sparked groups and individuals to help out. Organizations, nonprofits, businesses, and student groups are taking up the cause to look out for their neighbors.
"When that assistance is gone, it's up to us," Kaitlyn Austin, a community organizer, said.
Austin is with KC Eats, a coalition that came together in the last few weeks in response to the looming food emergency.
Austin said people are calling her nonstop offering to help.
She was laid off from her job with the Social Security Administration in June and understands what people are going through.
"It's my job to take care of my neighbors in any way I possibly can," Austin said. "I don't even have a job right now. Many of our organizers are going without."
KC Eats is spearheading a nonperishable food drive, partnering with businesses around the metro.
One of those businesses is 80 Santa Fe Art Gallery in downtown Overland Park.
"We were happy to participate in this," Gallery Owner Sheila Shockey said. "We do encourage people to donate to food pantries, but this was just an easy way for people, while they're shopping in downtown Overland Park, to drop off nonperishable food items for others."
Shockey said they're also accepting other items, including paper towels and toilet paper.
KC Eats and its partners hold a solidarity event from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Friday at The Ship Bar, 1221 Union Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. They gather the donations from around the metro and distribute them to families who need help.
Austin said grassroots efforts are all the community has to rely on.
"If we stand together, link arms, that's what social security is all about anyway," Austin said.
Student groups, like the UMKC chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., are also stepping in.
"We are seeing grassroots movements at a time when it's most needed, a time when the community needs to be the most involved," said Dominick Love, a fraternity member and senior at UMKC.
Donation boxes are located around UMKC's campus and outside the Multicultural Student Affairs center where people can drop off non-perishable items.
Love and his fraternity brothers empty out the boxes every day and give the donations to the YMCA pantry. They are also accepting monetary donations so families can get exactly what they need.
"It shows us how little we can rely on people that we were used to relying on, but it also shows us how important, how heavy it is for us to take the initiative and care for one another," Love said.
Kappa Alpha Psi's food drive runs through Nov. 21.
Love said all proceeds will go directly to families, kids, and the elderly who aren't able to get out of the house.
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