ORLANDO, Fla. — People applying for food assistance and other governement services, like Medicaid, say they are running into long lines outside a Florida Department of Children and Families office in Orange County.

Throughout the day on Friday, dozens of people were lined up outside DCF’s Family Resource Center in Pine Hills to apply for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, as well as other services. 

What You Need To Know

  • People applying for food assistance and other services like Medicaid are running into long lines outside a Florida Department of Children and Families office in Orange County

  • Dozens of people were lined up outside DCF’s Family Resource Center in Pine Hills Friday to apply for  SNAP benefits, as well as other services

  • DCF officials says the department provides multiple application methods to reduce the customer line as quickly as possible

  • They say DCF receives more than 90% of applications through an enhanced online application portal that was launched in early December

Some applicants said they didn’t have any success completing their applications online or on the phone.

Justin Frauenfeld said after he wasn’t able to finish his application online, he spent a day in line at the center, but still wasn’t able to get an in-person interview. And he said he got nowhere over the phone.

“All they do is go through a loop of the automated system that ends up saying, ‘We are busy helping other callers, please call again later,’ over and over and over,” he said.

Frauenfeld said getting back in a long line in front of the Family Resource Center was his only option to get signed up for the SNAP benefits. He says CareerSource Central Florida told him getting those benefits was his only way to qualify for financial assistance and training to get his commercial driver’s license. He wants to work as a truck driver.

Frauenfeld said he began applying for SNAP benefits last August, but when DCF introduced a new online portal to process applications in late 2023, DCF told him he’d have to start the process over.

DCF says it provides multiple methods to reduce the customer line as quickly as possible, including lobby staff available to answer customers’ questions while they’re in line. The agency says traffic patterns at storefronts vary throughout the week, especially following major holidays. DCF says they receive more than 90% of applications through an enhanced online application portal launched in early December.

Frauenfeld says the center stopped taking interviews for applications due to not enough social workers there on Friday, so after two days of standing in a long line, he left without furthering his application.

He said this could delay his plans to become a truck driver, a job he needs. He says his two other jobs aren’t paying enough and he currently lives in his SUV.

“It’s horrible, it’s frustrating, because I am also on a time crunch,” said Frauenfeld. “It’s insane. It’s a waste of time.”