SNAP recipients told to buy shelf-stable food or go to food banks as funding deadline looms
People who rely on the federal food assistance program might not receive their benefits for the month of November because of the ongoing government shutdown.
Recipients of SNAP food assistance benefits across the country face a looming deadline: Come Nov. 1, their cards may not get refilled because of the government shutdown in Washington.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves nearly 42 million people each month, allocates money to states on a monthly basis. Benefits were largely uninterrupted over the past three weeks because funding for October was allocated to states before the shutdown began on Oct. 1.
But in a letter to SNAP state agency and regional directors on Oct. 10, the Department of Agriculture warned that there would not be enough funding to pay full SNAP benefits — also known as food stamps — in November if the shutdown persists.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/snap-benefits-funds-run-out-nov-1-rcna239432Open linkView original on lemmy.world
This system is fundamentally broken. In Australia there is no path by which people on Centrelink would not have their payments processed for more than a few days. I remember a bank issue which caused a bunch of people to not get their payments on time and it was a major issue, people were absolutely livid. That was only a couple of days late and was resolved promptly with hardship temporary support available for those who really needed it.
For the system to be able to fail like this means those who designed the system want it to fail this way. They could change the funding mechanism to make sure SNAP is immune to government shutdowns if they wanted to. They have chosen not to so that they can use hurting poor people as a political weapon. Removing this weapon should be the goal of any reasonable party and it should be urgent. There are many similar funding holes that can be closed with reasonable legislation and would take away the impact of political dysfunction from the poorest and most vulnerable of society. Choosing to do otherwise is choosing that harm.
You can't compare the us to any country that does not have masked unmarked paramilitary randomly grabbing people off the streets. That would be unfair. Its apples to oranges at this point. Im just glad it does not run the global banking system........oh.....no.....
1/7th of the population relies on this.
Not any more, please pay taxes though while we build golden ballrooms
FYI if you're going to be affected by this there are places that can help you until benefits come back.
Food banks, churches, community centers, and organizations like https://modifyhealth.com/
You don't need to starve next month.
Yeah the thing is churches don't do it as Charity they do it for recruitment
Your experience is not nation wide.
How many food banks have the supplies to meet the needs of such a large influx? SNAP beneficiaries and federal workers are having to go to food banks
Call them and ask them.
Thank you. I’m not in the U.S. but one of my most important people is and has SNAP. They might already know of this, but I’ll have them check this out because I’m sure if they don’t they’ll be happy to have seen it.
Do the idiot republicans farmers not realize that SNAP is a huge subsidy for farmers? Their profits are going to go way down because of this.
You should hear them losing their shit on TikTok over the tariffs. Too bad over 77% of them didn't vote for their own interests.
I hope the ones who voted for Trump go bankrupt and leave farming so that people who are morons can have turned. Time we stop bailing out these fools because they'll never learn. They just need to be replaced
Owning the libs never tasted so good.
There's nothing it can be compared to.
Typically if on food stamps on a fixed budget but people were told at the end of the month right before funds were reloaded making this advice horseshit
Maybe we should do what the Democrats and Republicans want and subsidize it with private industry
Remember folks we have to vote straight ticket and never look at the candidates only the first letter of their party and what the candidates favorite color is matters
Democrats are on your side they say so and Republicans bad all their fault we have to subsidize everything and compromise and we can always try harder later
blue good because they say so and all the Republicans fault the Democrats good
Vote blue
You ok bro?
No. No he's not... he's brainwashed into thinking democrats are somehow good people, that give a shit about the country and not their wallets