‘We can help each other’: Savannah counseling center steps up with food drive amid SNAP benefit uncertainty

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The impact of the federal shutdown could ramp up in just a few days.

Many families that rely on SNAP benefits will not get them on November 1, as there isn’t enough funding to support the program.

Several local organizations are coming together across the Coastal Empire to help those in need.

A Savannah counseling center is stepping up to help. Mas Paz counseling is a space for therapy and many times, the most vulnerable moments for people.

This week, as many try to figure out where their meals will come from without those benefits, therapists here are stepping up in a different way.

Camille Ridgley, a licensed professional counselor here told us as a kid, her family survived off the WIC program. And if they didn’t have it, she often thinks about how she could have and would have gone without.

“We were a WIC family and I’m one of 9 children and without WIC we really wouldn’t have been eating,” said Ridgley.

When she found out that people would face that risk, she and her colleagues set up a donation drive.

It started as just something for her clients that may have been in need, but she says now, they leave a box of food outside at night for anyone. It’s moments like these where she says the community should come together.

“My heart just went out to families who can’t go to the grocery store and get all that they need and I know that we are better together,” said Ridgley. “I’m amazed at the community. Every single day we’ve gotten a donation, and people are so thankful to come in and be able to choose what they want from what has been donated.”

Tatiana Cabral, the CEO says she was in full support of Camille’s idea.

She believes more than anything, it’s time for the community to stick together and extend resources.

“If we share them, open up our doors or our tables. Open up some seats and open up our cabinets and share with other people, then we can help each other,” said Cabral.

They tell us the struggles aren’t new. They just look a little different now.

How to help those in our area amid SNAP benefit uncertainty

For the people at home that are watching and want to help you can drop food items off on the porch at Mas Paz (across from Picker Joe’s) or go to their website here.

For the people at home that may need food items, a bin with food is left outside every evening.

You can also use that website to reach out to a counselor here.