KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — Uncertainty surrounding funding for federal food assistance programs because of the government shutdown has local food banks seeing an increase in need.

Feeding America West Michigan says it expects the need to grow the longer the shutdown drags on.

Keeping the shelves stocked at the nonprofit’s Kentwood warehouse is a constant task and with questions surrounding future funding for food programs like WIC and SNAP workers may be busier than ever before.

Ken Estelle, the president and CEO of the nonprofit, said it is already seeing high demand.

“Just because of uncertainty, there are more people coming to some of our food distributions because they just are not sure what may happen, so even though they may not have been directly impacted yet, we’re seeing that increase,” Estelle said. “We’ve been hearing a lot, a lot of it is just unknown, we’re kind of waiting. There’s a number of programs that we’re involved with that could be impacted.”

While WIC and SNAP have not run out of funding, Estelle said any delay or doubt about money leads to more people turning to charitable food organizations. Additionally, some federal programs would have a direct impact on the food those organizations can provide.

“We get about 30% of the food we distribute comes from USDA commodity food programs where the USDA provides us food, a lot of it from Michigan farms, that we then provide to folks in need. That program right now, we’re not able to put in any new orders for those commodities,” Estelle said.

The nonprofit does not know if any of its food shipments will be delayed or canceled.

The last government shutdown at the end of 2018 into 2019 had Feeding America working to meet a growing demand from federal workers who stopped receiving pay checks.

“We actually ended up helping a number of federal workers at the airport — TSA workers and the like that weren’t getting a paycheck — so we were doing food distributions there,” Estelle said.

The organization is trying to remain hopeful that Congress can come up with an agreement to reopen.

“We’re kind of anxiously looking to see how long this goes and if it goes another week or two we could end up really looking at some federal employees in our area that aren’t getting a paycheck and we will need to be able to help them as well,” Estelle said.

Private donations help the nonprofit meet the increased need. If you want to make a donation, you can do so through the Feeding America West Michigan website.