Waco-area church groups, nonprofits and concerned residents are stepping up to fill the gap amid cutbacks and delays in payments to McLennan County’s 32,000 SNAP recipients.

Funding for the federal food stamp program lapsed Saturday due to a monthlong government shutdown. The Trump administration said Monday it would follow judges’ orders to use emergency funds to keep the program going, but the payments will be cut in half and are expected to take days to roll out, according to the Texas Tribune.

The timing of that rollout remains unclear, said Jeremy Everett, executive director at the Waco-based Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

“SNAP recipients will receive partial benefits for November, although they will be delayed,” Everett said in an email to the Bridge on Monday. “We are awaiting guidance from USDA and Texas Health and Human Services about when recipients can begin to expect the funds.”

In the meantime, local church groups, businesses, pantries and community members are stepping up to fill the need.

Caritas of Waco has seen an increase in people asking how they can help on top of an increase in patrons at the food pantry. Although uncertainty about SNAP remains, the food pantry plans to continue serving people as needed. 

“Our big concern is not being able to always see everyone that does come to us physically here at our location,” said Janie Ramon, Caritas program director.

Cha Community, a boba tea cafe with locations in Waco and Temple, gave free meals this past weekend to anyone with a SNAP card. The business also collected $1,296 to give to Shepherd’s Heart Food Pantry. 

Texas grocery chains have also pledged to support food aid ministries in their market area. Those include H-E-B, which is giving $5 million to Texas food banks and $1 million to Meals on Wheels; and Brookshire’s, which is giving $500,000.

A new group, Waco Mutual Aid, is working to coordinate efforts to serve food-insecure families in the Waco area. The group held a video conference on the topic Tuesday.

Emily Morrow Loachamín, a Waco social worker who helped organize Waco Mutual Aid, said service providers agree that “this is a big need, but there’s no plan.”

“Everyone is pretty overwhelmed with what’s happening right now,” Loachamín said. “And so nobody wanted to take on that leadership, understandably …  It’s a big ask. So as a group, we just said, well, let’s at least create a space where people can organize.

“We want to help just direct that energy that clearly is in the community,”  Loachamín said. “People want to respond and direct it in the right way.”

Loachamín recommends people look into established partnerships through their churches or organize groups to volunteer. For a pantry, it is more impactful to train a group of 25 people rather than one individual. 

Loachamín noted that a Baylor University student organized fellow Greek life students to volunteer and donate food, which will be distributed Saturday in partnership with a local judge. Loachamín said she hopes to see more such efforts.

“(What) we want to encourage people on this call to do is find your niche, find something that you can do, your local school, your church, and how you can respond in that way,” Loachamín said. “So that, hopefully we aren’t overwhelming some of these larger systems.”

Other ways to help include donating money to pantries, including the following:

Waco ISD employee data exposed through security incident

Oct. 8, 2026Oct. 9, 2026, 12:28 p.m. Central

Build your Waco-area ballot for the Nov. 3 election with this tool

Oct. 8, 2026Oct. 9, 2026, 1:46 p.m. Central

How to prepare to vote in the Waco-area elections

Oct. 8, 2026Oct. 8, 2026, 10:59 a.m. Central