We’ve shared some heartwarming stories of people and organizations in recent weeks stepping up to help their neighbors.

There are churches that are adopting families who are struggling to put food on the table. Some people are donating their New York State Inflation Refund Checks to food pantries to help them meet the additional need food pantries are seeing. Businesses, farms and farmers markets are feeding those who can provide proof that they receive SNAP but can’t get benefits or are making donations to food pantries.

It should truly warm the heart to again see what happens when a community comes together to solve a problem.

Yet our elected policy makers in Washington, D.C., can’t act as if this outpouring of generosity can continue forever. People only get one Inflation Refund Check. Businesses can’t give away product for months on end. And family budgets are getting tighter, which means the help people are providing their neighbors this week may not be able to last forever.

The poor, and the working poor, should not be pawns in national politics. Adding policies that aim to get those who are able to work or volunteer to do so as part of the qualifications for the SNAP program makes sense. There should be some community return for federally funded benefits. But that’s not really what we’ve been talking about here. We aren’t discussing changes to SNAP – that’s been done. The shutdown was about our political parties’ inability to have meaningful dialogue, and it put all of us in the difficult position of trying to care for our families and our neighbors’ families at the same time the federal government had already cut aid to programs that help food banks and food pantries to stock their shelves. The shutdown and the cuts to food aid programs earlier this year created a double-whammy for our social safety net.

The shutdown’s end comes at a good time. We have again seen our region’s generosity, and don’t have a doubt it will continue through the holidays.