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By Saturday 106-thousand Floridians will run out of unemployment benefits. Congress let the extended and emergency benefit programs expire. If a deal isn’t reached on Capitol Hill an additional 41-thousand Floridians will exhaust their benefits weekly. As Whitney Ray tells us, food banks are already preparing to lend a hand.

A the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Big Bend, Executive Director Cheryl Phoenix is preparing for another wave of hungry Floridians this holiday season.
The food bank has tripled its warehouse space, to keep up with the demands of high unemployment. The news is getting worse.

Congress let extended unemployment programs expire. That means by Saturday 106-thousand Floridians will stop receiving unemployment checks. An extra 41-thousand will lose benefits each following week. The loss means less cash for essentials, so Cheryl is preparing for the increased demand.

“People may have been scrapping buy on unemployment and now they may not have that safety net,” said Cheryl.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation is watching Washington for any changes.

“As of this moment, this is where the process is, but we are monitoring that congressional discussion very closely,” said AWI Spokesman Robby Cunningham.

Alan Stonecipher with the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy says without an extension an extra 230-thousand Floridians will be left with no income by year’s end; which will hurt businesses.

“It’s going to make it very difficult for those families to pay their rent, to buy food, to buy gasoline, and then it hurts the local economy,” Said Stonecipher.

But people will still need to eat. They’ll be turning to the food banks this holiday season, the only question is; will there be enough? You can help to donate food or to volunteer visit the 2nd Harvest of the Big Bend at www.fightinghunger.org.