Osceola commissioners voted 4-1 Monday to set aside $1 million to aid 38 food pantries, one week after county nonprofits said the increase in need due to a decrease in SNAP funding will spark a “crisis.”
“This made me lose sleep the whole weekend, these individuals that rely on SNAP benefits possibly going hungry,” Commissioner Viviana Janer said at the meeting. “It’s very unfortunate that we have to get to this point.”
Roughly 24,000 households in Osceola County rely on Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, Rev. Mary Downey, CEO of the nonprofit Hope Partnership, told state legislators last week.
Amid the ongoing government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the SNAP program, said last month its nearly 42 million beneficiaries would stop receive help buying food as of Nov. 1, forcing many to turn to food banks.
But on Monday, following a backlash and two judges rulings requiring SNAP to continue running, President Donald Trump’s administration said the food assistance program will be partially funded.
The county will set aside $90,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds, or CDBG, and $910,000 in general revenue funds if needed in the event the federal government does not reopen in short order, spokesperson Tyler Winik said in an email.
“I don’t think necessarily we would need to use it if the government opens back up,” County Manager Don Fisher said. “But if this continues, we’re starting to have phone calls with some of our pantries … and this is boiling up in terms of being an issue.”
The county will pull from its $7.63 million budget for CDBG funds for fiscal year 2026. These funds are federal grants distributed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and typically fund affordable housing, infrastructure improvements and public services like code enforcement.
It will also pull funds from its budgeted $706 million in general revenue funds which serve as the county’s primary funding source to operate.
But Commissioner Ricky Booth, the lone dissenting vote, raised concern in being able to get reimbursed for the general revenue funds.
“I can agree on the $90,000,” Booth said. “But I would not agree on spending any more of the general fund dollars on that unless we came to a really, really hard up point maybe a month or so down the road.”
The County Manager will report back on the program to the Board at its next meeting on November 17.
Across the region, local governments and organizations are also stepping up to help SNAP beneficiaries. At a press conference last week, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said he directed the board of commissioners to identify available funds that could be redirected.
Demings also said he sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis asking the state to help local governments access state emergency money.
At a press conference Monday, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost and the nonprofit Hope CommUnity center also asked the governor to declare a state alimentary emergency and authorize use of emergency funds.
