Paula Chesley is a regular contributor. She lives in East Isles.
The Tuesday before Nov. 1, frantic emails, meetings and chats started flying around my workplace. “How are clients going to get food now without SNAP payments?”
I work at a clinic for people with eating disorders, and my co-workers rightly perceived Nov. 1 as a potential crisis point, both because of Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and the recent government shutdown. But reading about the the bill and SNAP benefits felt abstract, so I wanted to understand how food insecurity was playing out locally — and how we as a community could help.
Our neighborhoods are often described as affluent, but it’s easy to forget that many low-and middle-income residents live here too. Without SNAP payments, people would be forced to rely more heavily on food shelves that are already stretched thin, given today’s grocery prices. So, on Saturday morning, Nov. 1, I visited Joyce Uptown Food Shelf and spoke with Executive Director Matthew Ayres.
Joyce Uptown Food Shelf has operated at Fremont Ave. South and 31st Street, in South Uptown, since its founding in 1969. Joyce is an independent nonprofit with three staff members, including Ayres, and more than 200 volunteers.
When I arrived, volunteers were working out of the garage sorting and packing food. State Sen. Scott Dibble had also just arrived for a briefing. Ayres spoke with both of us and walked us through the food shelf.
“Normally, this area is full of food,” he said, gesturing toward a half-full storage area. “It was full just yesterday, but all that food has gone out the door. That’s how great the need is.” Dibble filmed a video with Ayres for the SD 61 Facebook page, and together they helped me untangle the confusing legal situation surrounding SNAP. I couldn’t help imagining how stressful it must feel to not know if you will be able to buy food because of legal decisions outside of your control.
Food insecurity is peaking now, but it has been rising for years. “Since I started five years ago, we’ve had a 568% increase in the amount of food that goes out the door. This is a crisis,” Ayres said. During the last week of October, Joyce had lines of people waiting for the first time.
Most shoppers are local: In early 2024, nearly 70% came from ZIP codes 55407 and 55408. Joyce historically relied on shopping appointments so people could choose their food, but because of demand, appointments for new shoppers are no longer available. Instead, Joyce is distributing prepacked emergency bags to anyone who needs them.
The food shelf has seen an outpouring of goodwill — volunteer capacity is maxed out and financial donations are up — but the strain of the current moment is unmistakable. I asked Ayres whether the level of tension he sees has changed during his tenure. “One hundred percent,” he said.
SNAP benefits have returned with the government re-opening — but the BBB’s new work requirements mean that 27,000 SNAP recipients in Hennepin County will be re-evaluated for eligibility.
Many will lose benefits, Ayres said, because a significant number of SNAP participants cannot work or cannot meet the types of work requirements the bill demands. Dibble said the BBB was “specifically designed to take money out of the SNAP program to create resources for tax breaks for billionaires. This is true for other safety net programs as well.”
Joyce prides itself on being a warm, welcoming place. Many shoppers come for the calm and dignity of the experience.
“We don’t have fluorescent lights or people reaching over you to get stuff, and people really appreciate that,” Ayres said. He is proud of the roughly three-minute turnaround time for emergency bags and of the practice of bagging food and bringing it out to shoppers’ cars.
“Coming to a food shelf can be hard, especially the first time,” he said. “We had someone crying here this week because it was their first time. When you’ve made it 37 years without having to use a food shelf and suddenly your cupboards are empty, it’s a big step to tell yourself, ‘All right, I’m going to step into the food shelf and ask for help.’”
