The federal government may be reopened but that does not mean local food pantries are going back to normal numbers.
Sarah Burns with the North Texas Food Bank says they continue to hear from the hundreds of agencies and pantries within the 12 counties they serve.
"What we have been hearing from them has been a spike in people at their pantries," Burns said. "Anywhere from 25 to 50 percent, on average."
Burns says most of the spike involved federal workers not receiving paychecks and Texans not receiving SNAP benefits.
She says over the past few years they really have not seen what would be considered "normal" numbers of people dealing with food insecurity.
"Increased costs housing, food, healthcare, all of that at play, without wages going up, we are seeing an increase need of people needing to use pantries," Burns said.
She says the numbers have increased ever since the Covid-19 pandemic.