Wisconsin help hotline Impact 211 sees influx of calls for food assistance [Video]

Local social services hotline 211 reports a 40% increase in calls from people asking for food assistance since early 2023.It’s an issue nonprofits and food pantry officials said has gotten worse since March of that year, when a pandemic boost to the federal government’s supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) ended.Outside Greater Mount Sinai Church in Milwaukee’s Hampton Heights neighborhood, Denise Holmes helps run a food pantry for neighbors in need.”If we don’t help them, where do they go?” Holmes said. Mertis Wilder, a senior on a fixed income, is one of the people coming to Holmes’s food pantry. Wilder said during the pandemic she got around $160 per month in government assistance for food. Now, she said she gets $54 per month. “The way food is in the stores now, you can’t afford to buy with what we get. And especially on a fixed income you just…you can’t do it,” …