PHOENIX — It still may be bumper-to-bumper traffic, but it's not on our Valley freeways.
Instead, it's in the parking lot of St. Mary's Food Bank's location off 31st Avenue and Thomas Road in Phoenix.
"I never know if I'm going to have food until the end of the month," explains Marianne Thone, a Phoenix senior living on social security and SNAP benefits.
Late Thursday, a federal judge ruled the Trump Administration has to full fund the food assistance program for the month of November - It's just the latest in what has been a series of twists and turns for food benefits impacting tens of millions of people across the U.S., including nearly 900,000 Arizonans.
The White House is now saying the Trump Administration will likely appeal that ruling, leaving so many people like Marianne stuck in limbo and worried about what could come next.
"It's hard," says Marianne. "I'm kind of scared and nervous and it's nerve-wracking."
And Marianne isn't the only one.
"I'm here to get some good today," says Barbara Millard, who walked to St. Mary's with an empty cart, hoping to fill it up with food donations.
Barbara says her SNAP benefits never arrived this month.
"Neighbors are helping, but they can only do so much with their families," explains Barbara.
When ABC15 was there on Thursday morning, at least 80 cars had lined up in the parking lot to pick up food, even before St. Mary's opened their doors for the day.
"We've never had a double-whammy of a government shutdown and SNAP benefits being cut," explains Jerry Brown from St. Mary's.
Jerry says demand is up by at least 10-15% right now.
"That's 50,000 visits across our network and we were already operating at peak efficiency."
"All I can afford sometimes is hamburger meat," says Marianne. "And you get tired of hamburgers."
Despite it all, Marianne is able to smile through the stress, but having Type II Diabetes, her situation is even more dire than most.
"I just don't know how I'm going to make it sometimes," she says.
St. Mary's Food Bank says in their 58-year history, they have never had to turn away a family and plan on keeping with that even during this period.
One silver lining: St. Mary's says they've seen an increase in donations online and requests for people to put together their own holiday food drives.
There's also a program that connects qualifying Arizona seniors with vouchers to purchase produce at farmers' markets.
After ABC15's story first aired Friday morning, we heard from Kathy Porter from the Arizona Community Farmers Market group, who says that the WIC and the Senior coupon program stopped issuing coupons back on Sept. 30 for the year, but will start again the first week in February. Anyone who gets coupons has until November 30 and December 31 to spend them before they expire, according to Kathy.
Kathy Porter from the Road Runner Park Farmer's Markets tells ABC15 that they are also honoring the brand new program created by Governor Katie Hobbs' office called Food Buck Now. "Everyone who has a SNAP card just has to show it to us," says Kathy. "We only have to see it, and we can give $40 in vouchers per card per day at the market, and that they can use for any SNAP eligible product, which is everything at the market, except for hot, ready-to-eat food, soaps, lotions, and jewelry."
ABC15 reached out to the Department of Economic Services to confirm there have been no changes to this program, but have not heard back yet. For more information on the Senior Farmers Markers Nutrition Program, click here.
For more information on the Double Up and Food Bucks Now programs, click here.
