Wayne County restaurants support community during government SNAP funding fight

The federal government had planned to pause SNAP food assistance benefits for the first time ever during this government shutdown. Two federal judges have ruled against that plan Friday, but the government is likely to appeal. While benefits still aren’t loaded onto electronic benefit cards, more than 500,000 Hoosiers will be looking for alternate ways to afford the food they need. In Wayne County, a single local restaurant pledging to provide free meals in November has turned into a wave, inspiring multiple other businesses to help. IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports.

MaryAnn Waltz and her husband own 5 Arch Brewing in Centerville. She said they plan to provide 100 free meals to people not receiving their SNAP benefits during November. These meals will be enough to feed eight people and they will hand them out every Saturday until SNAP funding is reinstated.

“No one should have to go through a hard time or, you know, worry about when their next meal is going to be,” she said.

Waltz said she got the idea when she heard that one of her favorite restaurants in her home state of Michigan were planning to giving out free food to SNAP recipients missing their benefits. The Waltz’s announcement led to other local restaurants joining the cause.

Dustin Garvin with Firehouse BBQ and Blues says he sees this as an opportunity to give back to the community that has showed up for his business for years.

“We want to support the community because that’s the only reason why we’re here,” said Garvin, “It’s because the community supports us day in day out.”

According to Garvin, each meal costs between $7 and $10, meaning that each week the program is active will result in several hundreds of dollars in food given away.

So far, five other local restaurants have announced similar programs.

Waltz says she never could have imagined how big of an impact her family’s act of kindness would have on her community.

“We didn’t think it would be, you know, this big, you know, which we’re really happy it exploded and, the community has really come together. It was just amazing,” said Waltz.

Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu