ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\nSNAP recipients must work or volunteer a minimum of 80 hours per month. Or you can choose to participate in certain training or education programs to continue receiving benefits.<\/p>\n
If you fail to meet the new requirements, you can only receive SNAP benefits for three months over a three-year period.<\/p>\n
The Northern Illinois Food Bank is already seeing a surge in demand on Friday as residents begin to feel the pressure of figuring out a way to feed their families.<\/p>\n
Georgina Rubio picked out a few essentials from the neighborhood food pantry in West Chicago on Friday afternoon. She just lost her SNAP benefits, which provided a lot of help to her family.<\/p>\n
Rubio says everything is so expensive, and without the money from SNAP, she needs to get more food from different places. Rubio is one of an estimated 35,000 former SNAP recipients who are now looking for help from other places.<\/p>\n
In the first hour they were open on Friday, one food pantry saw double the normal number of neighbors they serve.<\/p>\n
“We’re all stocking our shelves. We’re all rescuing as much food as we can,” said Neighborhood Food Pantries Executive Director Laura Beard.<\/p>\n
The Northern Illinois Food Bank is a warehouse that services some 900 feeding sites and pantries in 13 northern Illinois counties. They anticipate an increase in need for 1 million more meals feeding some 35,000 more people in the next two months alone.<\/p>\n
“We are investing significantly more making sure we have enough food at this moment,” said Northern Illinois Food Bank CEO Julie Yurko.<\/p>\n
The food bank is also planning to add five mobile pop-up food pantries throughout several northern Illinois suburbs. The head of the food bank says food pantries everywhere in Illinois are trying to prepare for the expected increase in need.<\/p>\n
Even some people who have not lost their SNAP benefits say these are difficult times, and they need all the help they can get.<\/p>\n
“Even without SNAP, people with multiple jobs, the economy right now is just… you still need,” said SNAP recipient Kate Aguado.<\/p>\n
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