The Roseville coffee shop is continuing its food drive after a successful first week

By: Kinsey Gade

Makwa Coffee is continuing food drive as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits remain unresolved.

Makwa Coffee frequently hosts community drives, last year collecting socks for unhoused communities in Minneapolis. Pending the halt of SNAP benefits, Makwa Coffee owner Jamie Becker-Finn began a nonperishable dry and canned food donation on Oct. 24.

The initial idea of a food drive came from a Buy Nothing group, an online community that shares, lends or provides necessities or items that other members want, with which Becker-Finn is associated. She offered Makwa as a convenient and local space for the drive. 

According to Becker-Finn, within the first 48 hours of the drive, 440 lb. of food were donated, and within less than one week, over 1250 lb. She said their ultimate goal is to provide for community members in need and affected by a lack of SNAP benefits, but also to make the process of acquiring food more feasible.

“The reality is there are a lot of people who haven’t used a food bank before because they’ve used SNAP,”  Becker-Finn said. “It seems simple if you’re someone with resources and a car, but for others, it’s more complicated. How are they going to get to the food bank? How are they going to sign up? So, that’s another element we are working on.”

Since the government shutdown began Oct. 1, the United States Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, froze payments on Nov. 1. The SNAP program regularly provides $8 billion in funds to 42 million people nationwide.

On Monday, Trump announced a delayed restart of SNAP benefits, only funding half the regular amount for recipients. The decision came on Oct. 31, after two Federal judges ruled it likely unlawful to freeze payments from the country’s largest anti-hunger program.

The administration, which had until Monday to report its resolution to the judges, said to be sourcing $5 billion from the USDA contingency fund, $3 billion short of the regular monthly cost. This is the first time SNAP benefits have had funding frozen since it began in 1964.

However, President Donald Trump posted on social media Tuesday that he plans to withhold SNAP benefits until the government shutdown has ended, defying the judges orders.

SNAP benefits, he stated, “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

This past week’s donations at Makwa went to Keystone Community Services, and this next week’s will be donated to the Department of Indian Work. Dylan Abbott, the assistant manager at Makwa Coffee, said that the community has been supportive of the effort.

“It’s been amazing to watch the community come together and support each other during these very trying times,” Abbott said.

Becker-Finn said they are adding a free pantry provided by the Department of Indian Work to the shop indefinitely and continuing the food drive through November, as SNAP funds remain unstable.

“Right now, there is no end because I don’t know how long people are going to need help,” Becker-Finn said. “We will keep going as long as people are hungry and need food.”