Copyright cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio families who rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will not receive their benefits this week because of the ongoing federal government shutdown. Meanwhile, the state has now sent aid to food banks, but it is a fraction of what the state would normally pay out in SNAP benefits. An announcement Thursday from Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services is still working to recalculate SNAP benefits after getting new federal guidance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will send partial payments — about 50% of normal benefits — after a federal court ordered the agency to do so. Benefits for this month normally would have been distributed to SNAP recipients from Nov. 2 through Nov. 20 -- about $14.5 million a day. About 1.4 million Ohioans receive a total of $263 million per month in federal food assistance. As state officials recalculate new payment levels, Ohio has transferred $7 million to regional food banks -- part of assistance the state announced last week. The money was distributed based on the food banks’ shares of Ohio’s SNAP caseload: Mid-Ohio Food Collective (Columbus): $1,440,337 Shared Harvest Foodbank (Fairfield): $1,431,937 Greater Cleveland Food Bank: $1,170,837 Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank: $887,337 Freestore Foodbank (Cincinnati): $795,637 Toledo Seagate Food Bank: $570,937 Second Harvest Foodbank of the Mahoning Valley: $427,437 Second Harvest Foodbank of North Central Ohio: $275,537 Another $18 million in state aid is going to more than 63,000 Ohio Works First recipients — extremely low-income families with children. Those households will receive an extra weekly payment equal to 25% of their benefit amount beginning Friday, Nov. 7. The additional payments will continue for up to four weeks or until federal SNAP funding resumes. The shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, has left many federal nutrition programs uncertain. But the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program is funded for November. DeWine said the Ohio Department of Health received $10.3 million in federal funding this week for WIC.
