Would a federal funding freeze trickle down to local nonprofits?

In a word, yes. 

Tap-In, which serves people in East Providence, Barrington, Warren and Bristol, does not directly receive federal funding, but the freeze briefly imposed by the Trump Administration late last month would still have impacted the all-volunteer agency. 

Tap-In President Laurie Ward said the local nonprofit receives grants and food donations from organizations that rely on federal money. 

“Our biggest food donor is RI Community Food bank, last year donating 128,000 pounds of food to Tap-In,” Ward wrote in a message to the Barrington Times. “Some percentage of the food we receive from the Food Bank is from a USDA program, so changes to that program would drastically affect the amount of food that we receive if the federal programs get cut.”

The freeze to federal grant spending was short-lived, lasting only a couple days. It was rescinded and also blocked by federal judges, but it signaled heightened concerns at the local nonprofit. 

Meanwhile, officials at Tap-In (Touch A Person In Need) are also grappling with possible cut-backs at the state level. 

Ward wrote that the Rhode Island Community Food Bank received $800,000 in state funding last year, but officials have proposed reducing that figure to $550,000 in the upcoming budget. 

“We are advocating that they restore the amount to $800,000,” Ward wrote. “The Food Bank supplies food to more than 140 food pantries across the state.”

Each year, thousands of people frequent the Tap-In headquarters in the first floor of the Peck Center building in Barrington. Volunteers at the nonprofit work hard to keep the shelves stocked inside the food pantry; there are canned goods and other non-perishables, and refrigerators and freezers offer East Bay residents everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to frozen fish, chicken, beef and more. 

The nonprofit receives donations from local supermarkets, including Barrington Shaw’s, and from private residents. Financial donations and proceeds from fund-raisers allow Tap-In volunteers to purchase goods to fill in the gaps when there’s an uptick in need. 

And, Ward wrote, there has definitely been an uptick in need recently. 

“In our last fiscal year, our number of visits went up by about 25 percent,” Ward wrote. “In our current fiscal year, our numbers are up by an additional 25 percent.”

Ward wrote that Tap-In, which does not require any financial documentation from its clients, expects more than 8,000 visits this year. 

“About 95 percent of the visits are for food, although clients also get help with a number of other household items in the same visit,” Ward wrote. 

Some of Tap-In’s volunteers attended the recent Food Insecurity Awareness Day event at the Rhode Island Statehouse. The locals advocated for state officials to protect SNAP benefits and WIC benefits, as well. 

“Both of these nutrition programs are critical to the health and food security of low income Rhode Islanders,” Ward wrote. “We expect that any decrease in SNAP benefits would cause a significant surge in demand. Recently the farm bill expired, which helps fund SNAP benefits. There are also some proposals on the table that would dramatically cut SNAP benefits. 

“This would have a devastating impact on hunger and food insecurity across the state, and would certainly drive up demand for our services.” 

Ward wrote that more than 140,000 Rhode Island residents receive SNAP benefits.