Northwestern News Now

By Morgan James

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) - Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar made her way to Duluth and toured the CHUM facility.

This comes as the “Big Beautiful Bill” went into effect earlier this month, and organizations like CHUM are feeling the effects.

CHUM is Duluth’s largest food shelf, and from January to May, they have had over 166,000 food donations and helped almost 4,000 families get the food and supplies they need.

Last year in St. Louis County, there were over 19,000 people and 11,000 households that relied on SNAP benefits for food assistance, which got a huge cut with the bill that passed.

This affects not only the 160 retailers that work with food stamps and assistance, but organizations like CHUM that also benefit from federal funding.

Klobuchar said it’s programs like these that matter and help make communities better.

“By having this federally funded and saying this is a priority of our country, that takes some of the burden off of local taxpayers, state taxpayers, and of course the volunteer work being done at places like this,” said Klobuchar.

Klobuchar says that while they were able to cut down what got defunded, she says she plans to continue to talk with her constituents out in Washington and revisit budgets as needed, while possibly creating safety nets.