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Sharon Barton said she is grateful for the $300 she and her daughter receive in federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, even though the money runs out long before the month is over. “My thing is I try to spend no more than $100 a week,” said Barton, a 38-year-old permanently disabled woman from Pennsauken with searing chronic pain, severe asthma and other health conditions. But come Saturday when the new month begins, the balance on her electronic benefits card will drop to zero. Barton’s family is one of about 800,000 people in 400,000 households in New Jersey that will temporarily lose SNAP benefits beginning Nov. 1. Natiownwide, about 22 million households are expected to lose their benefits. The news frightens Barton, who said she wishes she was well enough to work and didn’t need to rely on anyone else for help. “I’m afraid I really don’t know what the future looks like for me,” she said. SNAP is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But with the federal government shutdown dragging on a full month and Republicans and Democrats in Washington locked in a stalemate over how to resolve it, elected officials, food bank operators and families in New Jersey are bracing for a food emergency not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are treating this like a disaster,” said Triada Stampas, president and CEO for Fulfill, the food bank that serves more than 90,000 people in Monmouth and Ocean counties every month. Fulfill would have to triple its food supplies to meet the need of everyone it serves now, she said. The major food banks serving New Jersey “are taking stock of our assets on the ground and sharing information in coordination with one another, to mitigate the greatest harm,” Stampas said. “We are asking for additional support from our government partners, just as we are asking for support from the community.” On Thursday, Gov. Phil Murphy, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, and Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, announced the state will immediately release $42.5 million — half of the $85 million earmarked in the state budget for the entire year — to the six largest food banks. They will share the money with hundreds of soup kitchens and food pantries across the state. Murphy, a Democrat, also took a swipe at the Trump Administration for not tapping a $5 billion SNAP contingency fund to maintain the program, as the federal government has done before. “The Trump Administration’s decision to abandon the over 800,000 New Jerseyans who rely on critical SNAP benefits during one of the longest federal government shutdowns in our nation’s history is morally reprehensible,” Murphy said. In New Jersey, we will continue to coordinate across government and with our partners on the ground as we navigate the fallout from the federal government’s failure to act in the best interest of the American people." In a memo last week announcing the upcoming suspension of SNAP, the USDA said it cannot use the contingency fund for “regular” SNAP payments. The fund is meant for victims of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods. “The best way for SNAP to continue is for the shutdown to end,” according to the USDA memo. “If not for Congressional Democrats blocking government funding, November SNAP benefits would be paid on time.” The main sticking point in the government shutdown is the anticipated loss of tax credits next year that help reduce the cost of health coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Democrats want to reach an agreement to renew the tax credits — and prevent millions of people from seeing their premiums double — before they agree to reopen the government. Republicans say they won’t negotiate the health care dispute until after they vote to reopen the government. Earlier in the week, state Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced that New Jersey had filed a lawsuit with 24 other states to challenge the Trump Administration’s decision to “illegally” withhold the emergency SNAP money. “This is especially devastating in the month of November, when families are gathering and demands on food banks and pantries are heaviest,” Platkin said. A federal judge in Boston hearing the case Thursday challenged the Trump administration’s argument that SNAP benefits could be suspended for the first time in the food aid program’s history because of the government shutdown. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani indicated she may issue a ruling as soon as Thursday night. Sharon Barton is feeling punished by the political gamesmanship. “Please don’t do this to people like me, who are struggling to survive,” said Barton, who is diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, a rare neurological condition that compromises her ability to use her arms and legs. “I didn’t ask to be sick. I want to work, I wish I could work and feel like I am part of something. But I can’t.” SNAP serves 813,000 New Jersey residents, including 340,425 children and 176,706 senior citizens, according to the Murphy Administration. The federal government pays about $170 million a month to keep the benefits flowing to New Jersey. The state also contributes up to $95 per month per household for a total expenditure of $1.8 million. People ages 18 to 59 who are not disabled and meet income guidelines must work to receive SNAP cash benefits, which are loaded on a debit card every month. For example, a household of two people would qualify for SNAP if the family’s annual income does not exceed $39,132. Stampas of Fulfill suspects some people won’t realize SNAP benefits are suspended until they go to the grocery store and try to pay with their cards. People who seek help from Fulfill will receive a “crisis box” with enough non-perishable food to give families three to four days of “breathing room,” she said. As critical as the SNAP program is to keeping people fed, the number of people relying on food banks, soup kitchens and pantries has not let up since the pandemic, when schools and many workplaces closed and people couldn’t work. “It’s been one thing after another in the last five years. Once the public health emergency was over and people went back to work, the prices rose so much higher than salaries and wages,” Stampas said. There was a 50% increase in the number of people seeking food this summer versus last summer, she said. “To see that increase in a year is not normal.” Lisa Pitz, the director of Hunger Free New Jersey, the leading statewide anti-hunger advocacy organization, predicted food banks and pantries will return to the pandemic-era strategy of asking people to drive up and open their trunks so volunteers can quickly distribute food supplies. “This is a crisis,” Pitz said. “Planning to go into emergency mode is justified.” The Community Food Bank will receive $22.5 million, the Food Bank of South Jersey and Fulfill Monmouth and Ocean will each get $6.3 million, Mercer Street Friends will get $4.6 million and Norewescap and the Southern Regional Food Distribution Center will each get $1.27 million, according to Murphy’s announcement. “We are stepping forward to support the organizations and individuals who are working selflessly to prevent our fellow residents from going hungry,” said Scutari, the state Senate president. Coughlin, the second-most powerful lawmaker in the state Assembly, said accelerating the delivery of state grants to food bank is just one strategy in addressing the suspension of SNAP benefits. Addressing food insecurity, the speaker’s signature issue as a lawmaker, requires “we stand up with a unified voice and get engaged. This is a call to arms for the state of New Jersey support their food pantries in a way they have not generally,” he said.
