The Very Rev. Winnie Varghese, dean of New York’s Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, has been preaching for the past week about the need for the community to step up to help people who face the loss of food benefits. Due to the federal government shutdown, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits ran out on Nov. 1, threatening to leave already food-insecure people without publicly supported food aid.
“We tried to think of a way to recreate something close to [SNAP],” Varghese told Episcopal News Service. She and other cathedral leaders decided to ask people to donate money that the cathedral will use to purchase $100 grocery store gift cards for people in the church’s Cathedral Community Cares programs. To read more, click here
