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Amid an ongoing federal government shutdown, the Department of Agriculture, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), froze funding for national food assistance, effective Nov. 1. That left nearly 42 million Americans without benefits to purchase groceries and other essentials. As food insecurity experts predicted, food banks and local pantries nationwide have experienced a drastic surge in demand — so much so that some food bank administrators are saying it could lead to a public health crisis. Late last Wednesday, the USDA announced that it would issue partial benefits this month in accordance with a court order requiring it to tap into SNAP’s contingency fund. As a result, SNAP recipients will receive up to 65% of their benefits rather than the original 50% that states had been directed to implement. “USDA performed further analysis and determined that the maximum allotments need only be reduced by 35%, instead of 50%, to deplete the SNAP contingency fund,” Patrick Penn, the undersecretary of the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, said in a court declaration, per CNN.
