October 31, 2025 • 4 mins
As SNAP Benefits are set to expire our local food banks are ramping up services. Vice President of Programming at Kids Food Basket Austin Roelofs joins us to discuss what Kids Food Basket is doing and how you can help.
More information can be found here: https://kidsfoodbasket.org/
More information can be found here: https://kidsfoodbasket.org/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is West Michigan's Morning News. Steve Kelly, Brett, Pikita,
Lauren Smith and Michigan about one point one I'm sorry,
one point four million people rely on Snap each month
to help afford groceries. It's the nation's largest food assistance program.
One of the things they've been talking about that will
end tomorrow as part of the federal government shutdown. Kids
(00:22):
Food Basket got ahead of this with a press release
about extra ways that they're going to help, and we
want to give them some time this morning to discuss
ways you can help and help families that need it.
Austin Ruloffs is the vice president of Programming at Kids
Food Basket. Austin, thank you so much for the work
that you do and for taking time today.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thank you so much for having us on to this.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Sorry, So let's talk a little bit about expanded services,
about extra ways that you're going to help and how
we can help spread the word.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you. Yeah. So this is going to
be a really, really tough time. As you said, you know,
one point four million michigan Anders rely on Snap to
put food on their table, and so we have, you know,
along with many partners. Immediately have a response here for
next week, knowing that this pause is planned to go
into effect tomorrow. Currently, you know, we're serving about eleven
thousand students each weekday through SAX suppers, sixty six different schools.
(01:14):
We not only are going to be offering additional meals
to our current schools, you know, we know that there
are students who may not always need sax Suppers when
they have the SNAP availability, but now with this pause,
we know they are going to be some new families
and new kids that are going to be in need
of additional healthy produce, health proteins, just additional food on
their table, so we're expanding that. Additionally, we'll be providing
(01:36):
more than ten thousand healthy shelf stable bags for next
week and looking to do that likely as this continues.
That'll just be our first time, but next Thursday and
Friday delivering to our sixty six elementary schools more than
ten thousand you know, shelf stable bags. They're going to
be going out just to be able to sustain kids
(01:57):
and families, right, so that'll be more than one hundred
and fifty thous was an additional pieces of food and bananas, apples, oatmeal,
you know, shelf stable items, things that can really help
not only the students there, but be able to bring
home and share with their families as well.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And so Austin. Obviously, the question then is how can
the ground Rapids community or West Mischian community and beyond
help And what I mean by that is we as
an organization took one of our meeting times and went
and donated an hour as a group and volunteered because
there's a lot of work that obviously is behind the scenes.
When you talking about that much food getting in a package,
(02:32):
getting out to schools and getting out to the folks.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for that
one hour make the huge difference. Right, So, we have
on average two hundred and fifty volunteers that walk through
our doors every day, really as young as five years
old up to ninety five plus, So you don't have
to you know, there's not a lot of stitulation, but
we need the help and that's on a regular basis.
Now we're going to need even more. So we have
expanded some opportunities next week, particularly on Wednesday right now,
(02:59):
but even throughout the week, their opportunities and our Grand
Rapids location Muskegan Holland facility that we're going to really
need to rely on the community to step in and
help us pack all these bags. Like you said, it's
a monumental piece of work and so it's going to
take everybody to make it happen. Also, opportunities to give,
right to donate if you have the ability to do
that right now, this will be an unplanned expense for
(03:21):
the organization, right so, this is going to be additional
food that goes out, So opportunities to give, opportunities to volunteer,
opportunities again to just really make sure that your legislators
know you care about this and that you care about
you know, kids and families having enough food on their table.
So we encourage everybody to be advocates for community members
to reach out to their local legislators, to their federal
(03:41):
legislators and make sure this is the priority.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Austin, I know for families that are possibly in need
of emergency help as really as this weekend. You have
some food pantries as well, talk to us about how
people can get in touch on that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yes, absolutely so there are great robust food pantry options
throughout the community. Here we have a list of those
food pantries we can provide as well. I know United
Way have gone through some of those pantry lists so
readily available. Dozens of pantries that I know are continuing
to try to stock as much as possible. We've talked
to a couple of those pantry partners, you know, Kids
(04:13):
Food Basket supports eighteen of them with healthy fresh produce
from our farms each summer. We've talked to a couple
already that just have already seen that demand and seen
some of their shelves you know, starting to become even
more bare with families starting to think about this. Even
though the snappods hasn't taken effect yet, families are starting
to prepare for it and really brace for it. So
if you have the ability to donate, you know, can
(04:34):
goods or shelf stable items to pantries as well. But
if you're looking for that food as system, you can
always call two one one. They will have information on
your local pantry, local spaces that you can go and
pick up food for you and your family.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Kids food Basket dot org. You can find them on
Facebook two for some updated information. The vice president of
Programming exhaustin Ruloffs, thank you so much for your time
this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Thank you all, I appreciate it.
This is West Michigan's Morning News. Steve Kelly, Brett, Pikita,
Lauren Smith and Michigan about one point one I'm sorry,
one point four million people rely on Snap each month
to help afford groceries. It's the nation's largest food assistance program.
One of the things they've been talking about that will
end tomorrow as part of the federal government shutdown. Kids
(00:22):
Food Basket got ahead of this with a press release
about extra ways that they're going to help, and we
want to give them some time this morning to discuss
ways you can help and help families that need it.
Austin Ruloffs is the vice president of Programming at Kids
Food Basket. Austin, thank you so much for the work
that you do and for taking time today.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thank you so much for having us on to this.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Sorry, So let's talk a little bit about expanded services,
about extra ways that you're going to help and how
we can help spread the word.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, absolutely, thank you. Yeah. So this is going to
be a really, really tough time. As you said, you know,
one point four million michigan Anders rely on Snap to
put food on their table, and so we have, you know,
along with many partners. Immediately have a response here for
next week, knowing that this pause is planned to go
into effect tomorrow. Currently, you know, we're serving about eleven
thousand students each weekday through SAX suppers, sixty six different schools.
(01:14):
We not only are going to be offering additional meals
to our current schools, you know, we know that there
are students who may not always need sax Suppers when
they have the SNAP availability, but now with this pause,
we know they are going to be some new families
and new kids that are going to be in need
of additional healthy produce, health proteins, just additional food on
their table, so we're expanding that. Additionally, we'll be providing
(01:36):
more than ten thousand healthy shelf stable bags for next
week and looking to do that likely as this continues.
That'll just be our first time, but next Thursday and
Friday delivering to our sixty six elementary schools more than
ten thousand you know, shelf stable bags. They're going to
be going out just to be able to sustain kids
(01:57):
and families, right, so that'll be more than one hundred
and fifty thous was an additional pieces of food and bananas, apples, oatmeal,
you know, shelf stable items, things that can really help
not only the students there, but be able to bring
home and share with their families as well.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And so Austin. Obviously, the question then is how can
the ground Rapids community or West Mischian community and beyond
help And what I mean by that is we as
an organization took one of our meeting times and went
and donated an hour as a group and volunteered because
there's a lot of work that obviously is behind the scenes.
When you talking about that much food getting in a package,
(02:32):
getting out to schools and getting out to the folks.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for that
one hour make the huge difference. Right, So, we have
on average two hundred and fifty volunteers that walk through
our doors every day, really as young as five years
old up to ninety five plus, So you don't have
to you know, there's not a lot of stitulation, but
we need the help and that's on a regular basis.
Now we're going to need even more. So we have
expanded some opportunities next week, particularly on Wednesday right now,
(02:59):
but even throughout the week, their opportunities and our Grand
Rapids location Muskegan Holland facility that we're going to really
need to rely on the community to step in and
help us pack all these bags. Like you said, it's
a monumental piece of work and so it's going to
take everybody to make it happen. Also, opportunities to give,
right to donate if you have the ability to do
that right now, this will be an unplanned expense for
(03:21):
the organization, right so, this is going to be additional
food that goes out, So opportunities to give, opportunities to volunteer,
opportunities again to just really make sure that your legislators
know you care about this and that you care about
you know, kids and families having enough food on their table.
So we encourage everybody to be advocates for community members
to reach out to their local legislators, to their federal
(03:41):
legislators and make sure this is the priority.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Austin, I know for families that are possibly in need
of emergency help as really as this weekend. You have
some food pantries as well, talk to us about how
people can get in touch on that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yes, absolutely so there are great robust food pantry options
throughout the community. Here we have a list of those
food pantries we can provide as well. I know United
Way have gone through some of those pantry lists so
readily available. Dozens of pantries that I know are continuing
to try to stock as much as possible. We've talked
to a couple of those pantry partners, you know, Kids
(04:13):
Food Basket supports eighteen of them with healthy fresh produce
from our farms each summer. We've talked to a couple
already that just have already seen that demand and seen
some of their shelves you know, starting to become even
more bare with families starting to think about this. Even
though the snappods hasn't taken effect yet, families are starting
to prepare for it and really brace for it. So
if you have the ability to donate, you know, can
(04:34):
goods or shelf stable items to pantries as well. But
if you're looking for that food as system, you can
always call two one one. They will have information on
your local pantry, local spaces that you can go and
pick up food for you and your family.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Kids food Basket dot org. You can find them on
Facebook two for some updated information. The vice president of
Programming exhaustin Ruloffs, thank you so much for your time
this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Thank you all, I appreciate it.
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