A workshop on navigating food systems in Douglas County turned into an opportunity for speakers to address impending threats to SNAP and discuss how to build relationships to advocate for families experiencing food insecurity.
When the Douglas County Food Policy Council, LiveWell Douglas County, Kansas Appleseed and more community partners began planning the Mobilizing Food Systems workshop, they weren’t anticipating the impending risk to November’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits next week.
Typically $34.4 million is distributed to 188,000 Kansans each month who benefit from SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Because of the current federal government shutdown, November benefits may be delayed or withheld unless the government reaches a budget deal by Tuesday, Oct. 28.
Even without the impending Oct. 28 deadline for November SNAP benefits, the program faces changes under Trump’s sweeping economic bill. If Kansas does not reduce its error rate in SNAP payments, Hayley Kotler of Kansas Appleseed said the state faces $55 million in administrative costs for the program.
Speakers at the Thursday workshop didn’t want to jump to the worst conclusions, since it’s still possible that November benefits will come in. Kotler also said that work is underway at the state level to reduce error rates in SNAP payments rapidly, and that other states have set a precedent that can be followed. Still, the possible implications are looming.
Elizabeth Keever, the chief resource officer at Harvesters, said for every one meal provided by the charitable food system, nine are provided by SNAP.
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“I don’t mean to sound alarmist, but this is the moment where the scale is beyond the capacity of the charitable food system,” she said. “… So this is doubling down the importance of advocacy. But also this is the time to — if you have the ability to give time, food, money or voice, now is the time to do it.”
Emily Lysen, a member of the Douglas County Food Policy Council (DCFPC) and the director of development for the Lawrence Farmers Market, kicked off the workshop with an activity on the local food system.
She demonstrated how all of the links — growing, transportation, processing, packaging, buying, cooking and eating, disposing and reusing — are deeply interconnected. As we saw during COVID, she said, when one system goes down, all others are impacted.
In this case, SNAP beneficiaries are not the only ones facing impacts.
Lysen said the potential loss of November SNAP benefits would hurt Lawrence Farmers Market shoppers as well as vendors and farmers, some of whom also receive support through SNAP.
The farmers market runs a Double Up Food Bucks program that matches up to $25 in SNAP dollars for shoppers. Recently, they introduced a second Double Up-style program for protein.
Both programs working in tandem turn $25 into $75 worth of fruits, vegetables and protein for SNAP recipients. Lysen said the redemption amount has grown to $13,500 in 2025, with SNAP recipients spending as much as $2,550 at the market in a week.
“At the farmers market level, this will definitely impact our farmers and local food growers as almost every single one of our vendors accept SNAP tokens, with the vast majority accepting Double Up Food Bucks as well,” she wrote via email. “… Without SNAP customers, our local farmers lose out on customers and money. We will feel this impact in every sector of our food system, locally, regionally, and nationally.”
Local resources:
• Food pantries in Lawrence
• Free meals in Lawrence
Kotler said she’s also focused on advocating for Summer EBT, which provides eligible school-age children with $120 in grocery benefits during summer vacation.
“Funding is going to be key to ensuring the kids have meals when school is out,” she said.
Stu Moeckel is superintendent of the Eudora Unified School System, which operates a successful free breakfast program for students. He said schools become community food hubs for large numbers of students and their families, and that policy changes have broad-sweeping impacts — whether or not everyone realizes it at first.
“I think there are members in our community who don’t necessarily work in this area or see this thing, and they just think it’s going to affect ‘those’ people,” he said. “It’s going to affect everyone … because you’re talking about millions of dollars that are in an economy. That’s going to affect everybody, from packaging, driving. All the people that may not work next to food are all going to feel that.”
Many of the speakers also indicated the importance of connecting with policymakers and legislators to build personal relationships and tell human stories that speak beyond statistics.
“I have seen it become a lot more challenging for a legislator to take a hard vote when they have heard from their community and they have seen the real impacts and ramifications of what might happen,” Kotler said. “It’s a lot easier to just close your eyes and vote when you haven’t heard from your community, because you don’t know how it will impact them.”
Kansas Sen. Marci Francisco, who was in the crowd as an attendee, recommended that folks introduce themselves to their legislators outside of sessions and ask how they prefer to be contacted so that advocates can maximize their impact.
Shelby Ostrom, a policy analyst with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said 11.5% of county residents are food insecure.
For Rep. Suzanne Wikle and all panelists, this doesn’t need to be the case.
“I would really want our society to truly believe that food is a basic human right, and hunger is a policy choice, and we have control over this,” Wikle said. “… There’s not a shortage of food. There are misplaced priorities about the food.”
Wikle said folks could start by calling Congressman Tracey Mann.
“Tell him to make sure SNAP is funded during a shutdown,” she said. “The money is there. They can make this happen. Hunger is a policy choice. They are making the wrong choice, and they need to hear it.”
Tyler Lindquist, the chair of DCFPC, ended the event by encouraging everyone to check on their neighbors in the coming weeks.
“Introduce yourself to them and just make sure — you might not know they’re food insecure — but if you can provide something or the neighborhood provides something to help them out during this, it’s very important,” he said.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.
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