Even before the Free Food and Many Blessings Food Pantry in Grand Island starts distributing food in the morning, coordinator Jim Elrod said, people are lined up outside its doors. It typically stays that way until the pantry shuts down operations for the day.
Last year, the pantry distributed roughly 109,000 pounds of food to the community, and Elrod said the need appears to be increasing.
But many Nebraskans seeking assistance soon may be cut off from a critical source of donated food if the state adopts proposed federal guidelines.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump’s administration recommended states take steps to keep undocumented immigrants from accessing emergency food assistance provided by the federal government. The administration cited a 2025 executive order by Trump as well as a 1996 law stating that “aliens within the Nation’s borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs.”
The federal guidance is only a recommendation, meaning states can determine for themselves whether to create citizenship checks for the food. A spokesperson for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said the agency has not decided whether to enforce citizenship requirements.
But officials and volunteers with Nebraska food banks and pantries are already warning that such a change could be burdensome and ultimately limit the amount of food they can provide to their communities.
“It causes that negative connotation where if you hear that the food pantry is asking about your citizenship status, it spreads like wildfire (and) people get scared,” said Belle Maldonado, coordinator of the Colfax County Food Pantry in Schuyler. “… I want people to be able to access food without this being a barrier.”
The new federal guidelines apply only to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that provides fruits, vegetables, meats, grains and other items to food pantries and emergency distribution sites across the nation. Food donated by individuals or community groups such as churches isn’t managed by the government and still could be distributed to everyone who seeks the help.
Since TEFAP was established in 1983, the USDA has allowed states to set program eligibility rules based on household income and residence status. People don’t have to show their IDs to get the USDA food, but in Nebraska they have to sign a form to attest to the truthfulness of the information they provide.
Already, an official in North Dakota said the state is not planning to implement citizenship requirements to the food assistance program. A Wyoming official said that state is reviewing the federal recommendation. A spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Social Services said they have other priorities but will continue to explore additional “program enhancements.”
Alycia Davis, deputy director of communications for Nebraska DHHS, said the agency is gathering information to modify its plan for the food assistance program, but it’s still deciding what it will do with the federal guidance.
A total of 255 food distribution sites in Nebraska that participate in the USDA food assistance program could be affected if Nebraska decides to impose the restrictions.
Nebraska’s two food banks — Omaha-based Food Bank for the Heartland and the Food Bank of Lincoln — are responsible for distributing the USDA products to food pantries and other nonprofit agencies across the state. From there, the food is distributed to people who seek it.
Individuals who want to receive USDA emergency food in Nebraska must be residents of the state. They also have to fill out and sign a form each time they receive assistance and mark whether their gross income is less than or equal to 180% of the federal poverty level, which is $59,400 per year for a family of four. People also can qualify for TEFAP if they participate in other welfare programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Adding citizenship eligibility information to the process would place “significant strain” on the operations of the two Nebraska food banks, said Stephanie Sullivan, a spokesperson for the Heartland Food Bank. The change, she said, would make it more challenging to provide consistent access to nutritious food for the people who rely on their services.
As of July 13, Sullivan said TEFAP has supplied more than 3.8 million pounds of food to the Omaha and Lincoln food banks in fiscal year 2026, accounting for 25% of the total that has been distributed.
The potential changes, Sullivan said, “represent yet another burden that will disproportionately impact our charitable food system and increase the already high number of Nebraskans facing hunger.”
According to Elrod in Grand Island, about 20% of his pantry’s food comes from the USDA food assistance program. He described the potential citizenship requirements as “despicable,” saying “it’s just more attempts to put a foot down on people who need help.”
Elrod also questioned whether food pantries would be held liable if they mistakenly serve an individual who wouldn’t qualify for USDA food under the potential restrictions.
In a request to respond to the concerns expressed by Nebraska food pantries, the USDA referred to their original statement, which pointed to the executive order.
Three of Nebraska’s five-member congressional delegation, all of whom are Republicans, responded to a request for comment regarding the potential citizenship changes to TEFAP.
A spokesperson for Sen. Pete Ricketts said he supports American taxpayer-funded programs serving U.S. citizens. A spokesperson for Sen. Deb Fischer said she has always supported Nebraska’s food banks, but she also supports the administration’s work “to make sure illegal immigrants are not utilizing resources meant for U.S. citizens.” Rep. Don Bacon said he trusts Nebraska DHHS to implement a thoughtful plan for TEFAP “while ensuring resources are used responsibly and benefits are protected for those in need.”
Sadi Omar Vila, a pastor at South Omaha’s San Andrés Iglesia Luterana, helped establish the San Andrés Food Pantry during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist church members in need. It quickly became a resource for the entire community.
In 2025, the pantry served almost 24,000 individuals. About 70% of the pantry’s food is provided by the USDA through the pantry’s partnership with the Food Bank for the Heartland. The rest of the food is either donated or purchased.
Vila said adding citizenship requirements to program eligibility would impact more than half of the people who use the pantry. Ending participation in the USDA food assistance program would require the pantry to seek more donations of food and money, he said.
“We’d rather keep feeding people with our resources than ask them something that is hard for them, because it is,” Vila said.
The Living Hope Food Pantry in northeast Omaha started receiving USDA emergency food assistance in March.
Charlotte Abram, a retired Methodist pastor who has assisted with the pantry since 2000, said they help a variety of individuals from around the city, many of whom have been food insecure for most of their lives.
While USDA food makes up a smaller percentage of food that they distribute compared to food that is donated or purchased, Abram said the TEFAP program has allowed them to sustain families for a longer period of time between pantry visits. The pantry generally limits visitation to once every two weeks for donated food.
With the potential citizenship requirements, Abram said there is a “huge possibility” that some people would stop using the pantry for fear of being turned away or even deported.
“We’re moving in a direction I would hope we wouldn’t move,” Abram said. “One more restriction away from being a kinder, gentler place where people in need can get their needs met without having to go through a lot of hoops.”
This wouldn’t be the first change that would impact the food security of noncitizens who live in Nebraska. In Trump’s 2025 tax and spending bill, SNAP benefits were canceled for immigrants with humanitarian protections, affecting more than 2,000 Nebraska refugees.
Changes to TEFAP would not affect “U.S. citizens and/or qualified aliens,” according to a USDA spokesperson. Under the 1996 law, qualified aliens include individuals such as refugees and asylum seekers.
In its February 2025 order, the White House said that in the decades since the passage of the 1996 law, “numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress through that law. Over the last 4 years, in particular, the prior administration repeatedly undercut the goals of that law, resulting in the improper expenditure of significant taxpayer resources.”
Lucy Lutjelusche, the director of St. Vincent de Paul Simon House in Columbus, said the lack of details surrounding potential eligibility changes to the USDA food assistance program is concerning.
Simon House operates both a traditional food pantry that offers donated food and a mobile food pantry that mainly provides USDA emergency food assistance. The mobile pantry served 1,343 individuals in June.
Although she acknowledged the importance of following regulations, Lutjelusche said food is one of the most basic necessities for any family.
“I always tell everybody, ‘What would Jesus do? He would feed his people,’” Lutjelusche said. “There’s no parameter in that. So, if I get told that I can only service a certain group of people, Simon House will then step up to service those that don’t meet this requirement.”
(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from Sen. Deb Fischer, whose office provided a statement after our publication deadline. In addition, a Wyoming official said the state is reviewing the federal recommendation.)
25 Comments
If the Roman Catholic Church feels so strongly that these immigrants should be getting fed, it is more than welcome to feed them using it’s own resources, as America provides them the freedom of religion to act according to their values. But the political opinion of the Vatican authorities is not binding on American taxpayers.
Tell me, what did they find under the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home? What was Pope Paul II doing right before he died? What happened at the Banquet of Chestnuts? Where did the Donation of Constantine come from? Who killed Catherine Cesnik? What did Celeste Heinonen say in her sworn deposition that she was asked to to by a bishop? Why did Saint Peter Damian describe Benedict IX as “a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest?” And for that matter, have you ever read the Liber Gomorrhianus?
People who claim they care an awful lot about the poor sometimes appear to have very different priorities when they think nobody is looking. Don’t be fooled. You will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16).
If these food banks wish to accept federal foodstuffs, you have to comply with the rules that go along with the support. That’s not a surprise to ANYONE who deals with the feds.
Sorry, WE as Americans should not be paying to support the consequences of Joe Biden’s treason.
Many food pantries are not driven by any particular religion. They exist because of compassion for their fellow human beings. It is a simple act of care for others. I am happy that there are people taking up this endeavor, in spite of so many roadblocks.
” It is a simple act of care for others.”
Caring for others who are entirely capable of caring for themselves is inhuman, if not plain evil. That is not “compassionate”; it’s dehumanizing.
Agreed?
Agreed, food banks are evil, finally someone said it lol
The food bank quoted in the article, making a theological claim about what Jesus would allegedly do, is inarguably associated with the Roman Catholic Church. And it doesn’t appear to be a coincidence that their policy position on immigration matches with that of the Vatican authorities.
So yeah, I have some questions for them about how their alleged “church” behaves more like an NGO that expects taxpayer dollars to fuel their spiritual crusade.
“I always tell everybody, ‘What would Jesus do? He would feed his people,’” Lutjelusche said. – The fallacy here is that Jesus wasn’t forcibly taking from others (via compulsory taxation) to feed the hungry. #sendthemback
I agree. But to be more specific, when Jesus said to feed the poor, he clearly meant that individuals should perform this task themselves. He did not mean give your money to the government, have the government grant a portion of that money to an NGO, have the CEO of that NGO get his cut, then the poor can fight over scraps offered to them in some shady back alley operation somewhere.
So you would argue we shouldn’t be a nation of Christian values, Scott?
According to Barack Obama, we already aren’t. According to many Democrats, we never were. According to scientists, religion is an ignorant superstition and people should trust the experts, by which they mean unelected government authority figures. According to Atheists, it’s completely possible to be an ethical person without any religious values at all.
So I return the question back to you: Why are allegedly “Christian” values appealed to only when a Democrat feels they can be used to pressure someone into doing what the Democrat wants done?
Lol so you’re saying that Republicans should stop appealing to Christian values when it comes to, let’s see, pretty much their entire platform? I completely agree, Not So Yummy!!!!
Your ability to stubbornly misconstrue what other people say would embarrass even the most determined internet trolls.
But change merely one word in your statement and it suddenly becomes accurate: Democrats should stop appealing to Christian values.
Or more to the point, people who hate and deride a certain religion shouldn’t twist the most basic principles of that religion as a way to manipulate the followers of that religion.
Quit even trying to access what became very meager amounts of food given at the pantries etc because the lines you had to wait in became too much and by the time all the “immigrants” were through nothing was left maybe a bag of half rotted apples or potatoes and bread. These people would push and shove and give the nastiest looks they were very rude and self righteous after driving up in their expensive cars with name brand clothing and jewelry and I would only see a handful of actual citizens in a line on any day that I went. It wasn’t worth all the trouble and nastiness to receive so little let alone the gas it took just to drive to one. It’s sad when people are so worried about such a little sized group of people in our country (as they claim) yet our own citizens go without because of these people from food to housing to any kind of help the real US citizens that actually need the help get left behind and forgotten about by these people wanting to be so socially correct and trying to make people believe that these “poor immigrants/illegals” are the ones who truly need help. It’s a big joke and shame on them for not thinking of our own and helping our own first and fixing what’s wrong in our own country and wanting to provide for our own homeless,hungry and poor before even thinking or trying to help out other countries people! Let them go back to their countries let their people and government take care of them. I have never ever met even 1 immigrant/illegal that is in our country for the right reasons the only ones I’ve ever met are only here to get everything for free which these socially wrong people give and make so readily available to any and all that come here yet can’t do the same for our own homeless,hungry and poor! The government needs to enforce the whole law of how immigrants wanting a green card need to have sponsors etc and make these socially wrong people actually open their pockets and homes to take care of them and quit draining the resources our actual citizens are in desperate need of!
I agree with the above, with only one difference. I do know immigrants whom I respect and who I firmly believe did come to this country for the right reasons. But the people I’m thinking of are responsible and law abiding citizens who came here legally, earned their citizenship and didn’t ask for a handout. You won’t see them at a a foodbank asking for further freebies, as most of them now make more money than I do. They worked hard to get where they are and earned their spot.
As the above post points out, the immigrants you do see at foodbanks likely did not come here legally, likely did not obey our immigration laws, often appear to have no respect for our culture or national identity and still have an entitled attitude that we are obligated to do something for them just because they managed to run across the border quick enough to not get caught. These are the people who will wave their own national flag and tell you how great their country is, even though they desperately wanted to get away from that place. And now they live among us, expecting that we owe them something even as they regard us with disdain.
Meanwhile there are ample numbers of American citizens, people who were born in this country, graduated from our public schools, and have done their time with their nose to the corporate grindstone, yet they still are struggling financially. Those people need to be fed as well, they need just as much help, but many of them may feel like they can’t go to a foodbank because of how much effort those foodbanks put into their fawning over immigrants. As with many aspects of the left-wing political philosophy of our time, there is a message being sent that if you are a white person who was born in this country then you are too privileged to deserve any help.
Certain self-righteous people, like the Roman Catholic Church, want to lecture to us about what Jesus would allegedly do in this situation. Jesus never told people to break the law, nor expect the governmental authorities to bail them out. If Jesus wanted people fed, he was willing to do it himself (Matthew 14:23-21). When asked about taxes, he held up a coin and asked whose face was on it (Luke 20:24). The Christian faith has always recognized a clear distinction between the function of governmental authorities and the moral obligations of religious believers. I recommend people read about Abraham Kuyper’s model of Sphere sovereignty, which uses Christian principles to place the role of the government in it’s appropriate domain separate from the church. Kuyper would be horrified by a nation that taxes it’s citizens, gives the money to Rome, and then allows Rome to distribute those resources to non-citizens.
From looking at the Foodbank for the Heartland website, it appears that private money far outweighs the funding and commodities that come from the government. If my quick review of numbers are correct, this seems like a very large reaction to a relatively (that is, relative to funding sources) small problem.
Not only would a change like this affect people who are afraid of being detained regardless of their citizenship status, it would also require redirecting of food bank resources to citizenship compliance – finding and training people to check citizenship status, do the associated government reporting (and there WOULD be government reporting), and the time invested in doing the actual checks – that’s not free. It might well require more staffing, as I’m not sure people who volunteered to distribute food would be willing to be reassigned to citizenship investigations instead.
And of course immigration status would have to be checked for every client served – according to their website, that’s around a million and a half visitors a year.
Frankly, I’m appalled that people can be so disgruntled about providing help to their neighbors in need.
“Frankly, I’m appalled that people can be so disgruntled about providing help to their neighbors in need.”
Fake outrage is also appalling.
Please name the “people” who are so disgruntled about “providing help to their neighbors in need” ?
Your argument seems counter intuitive to me…
You say that government money makes up a small portion of what food banks are receiving vs. a much larger share that is provided by private donors.
Then you point out how disruptive it would be for food banks to have to enforce new government restrictions on how the money is spent.
Those two things being the case… isn’t the logical thing for the food banks to just stop taking government money?
It’s always weird to me that certain people distrust the government so much, that the solution they propose is more government. I would personally try using less of a thing I don’t like, rather than more of it.
Sorry – it’s not money, as I read it – it’s commodities – food. And it’s over $7 million dollars worth of food, which would be a lot to replace. The “small share” is relative to the total, but that doesn’t mean it’s trivial. Also – again, as I read it – the “more government” being proposed is coming from the federal government itself – not by people distrusting the government.
Since you were unable to name the “people” who you claimed were so disgruntled about “providing help to their neighbors in need”, one can only conclude that your outrage was born of your own prejudices, not anything that was posted here.
Fake outrage is so unbecoming.
Nitpicking the difference between “money” and “commodities” doesn’t change the substance of what was said.
You said the “commodities” made up a small portion, while the majority was provided by private sources.
So the point stands: If what the government is providing is significantly less than what private sources are providing, why can’t the food banks simply go without the government aid if they disagree with the rules the government wants to impose?
After reading these comments I am ashamed of the people in this state. Get off your high horse and show some compassion, what happened to give us your tired, your poor, your hungry or whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers you do unto me? If you claim to be a christian act like it. If you don’t claim to be a christian bring you kindness and compassion to the table. What difference does it make where a hungry person comes from?
Jesus never said that Cesar should feed the hungry… he said Christians should do it.
So why is it that in 2026, the allegedly “Christian” thing to do is for me to stay home inside my gated community, allow the (evil) government to tax my income, never interact with a dreaded poor person, and then pat myself on the back that I’m such a good “Christian” because I paid my taxes?
(Not that I actually live in a gated community, since I’m dirt poor myself mind you!)
But my point is this: Why is the government even part of this conversation?
According to the article, only actual distributions of food – government commodities – are affected. That’s about $7.5 million for Heartland. It’s a federal program. There are roughly 150,000,000 tax returns a year.
7.5 million paid by 150 million is …a nickel each.
A nickel – heck, even a dime – a year isn’t much for just about anybody, but if you add them up, $7,500,000 worth of government commodities is a useful amount of food.
That sounds like an attempted analysis of the trees, while missing the forest entirely. You literally claim to know what each individual person is paying on their taxes for this service, while saying nothing about the actual service itself.
First off, of those 150,000,000 tax returns, how many of those people actually receive more money in either the tax return itself or other government benefits than they paid into the system originally? I’m not putting anyone down here, because I’m actually one of those people. Outside of social security taxes, I’m mostly tax exempt but I receive a sizeable amount of money from various credits that I qualify for, guaranteeing that I’m getting a lot more money from the government than the government is getting from me. So you aren’t getting that nickel from my bank account, even if I did want to give it to you. And I suspect a very large portion of the rest of those tax returns are in the same boat. Or in other words, your math doesn’t make sense as you failed to account for the variable of what each individual is actually paying and therefore what percentage of that might even possibly go toward this specific program.
Secondly, can you address the criticisms of the Catholic Church and the theological shortcomings of their claim to moral superiority of this issue? If not, then that’s a massive gaping plot hole for your argument.
Thirdly, why should a secular government provide any amount of funding, even a nickel, for a religious mission? If the mission is inherently religious by nature, shouldn’t the followers of that religion provide the nickel themselves?
Lastly, why give anything at all, even a nickel, to people who have violated our immigration laws? The law continues to be violated for every day that an illegal immigrant remains within our borders without legal authorization to do so. Giving them any amount of support, even a nickel, sends the message that we will support people that are in the process of breaking the law at the very moment the support is received.
I find it very noteworthy that you added this pseudo mathematical argument as it’s own post after scrolling past all the other comments on this article. When I pointed out the moral failures of Roman Catholicism, you said nothing. When I brought up Abraham Kuyper’s philosophy of Sphere Sovereignty, you said nothing. When I questioned why allegedly religious groups are behaving more like secular NGOs that demand government funding for their religious functions, you said nothing. When I stated that the bible requires individuals to care for the poor but not via government taxation, you said nothing. The only thing you wanted to say was to make a very shallow claim about each person only giving a nickel, and apparently that was supposed to override everything else?
According to OSV News (A Catholic news service with a left-wing bent), the Diocese of El Paso just ended a program to provide legal assistance to children without legal authorization to be in the country. Their reason? The government stopped paying them for their “services.”
Here is my question: Is it still “Christian Charity” if you only do it when the government pays you to do it?
The same thing applies here on the Food Bank issue. If these alleged “charity” groups will only provide their “services” if the government pays them, but will take their ball and go home with it if the government doesn’t, is that really charity… or is that a business model?
The bible does says that you should help the poor… but it didn’t say you only have to do it when the government pays you for the trouble. All the people who are throwing a fit over this seem to be unwilling to help others unless the government is involved, which I find very questionable.