By CAT SANDOVAL
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Recipients of benefits from the federal-state Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) impacted by the government shutdown may be getting some relief in the near future.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) said it received new guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Partial SNAP benefits will be made available for some 274,000 households, but those benefits will be delayed by at least a week.
At Emmaus food pantry in Fountain Square, the coordinator said it had enough food to feed 28 families on Wednesday afternoon. Julie Raasch said 32 families showed up as soon as the pantry opened, and it didn’t have enough food. She said she’s never seen anything like this in the 30 years she’s worked. “People are in a panic mode right now. 30 days. … When they call for their food stamps they’re saying they’re not available so they’re in a panic mode.”
Raasch said families are prepping for the entire month of November in case the benefits don’t kick in.
Even with the USDA announcement of partial SNAP benefits, it remained unclear when the SNAP benefits will resume or exactly how much.
For Jenny Chips and her family of six, the partial benefits will not be enough. “It takes everything we get with our food stamps and income to pay our bills and feed our family.”
She’s frustrated by the situation. She showed News 8 the food she received. She got a box of staples: crackers, peanut butter, bread, water, and toilet paper. “Crazy you’re trying to take care of a family of six on nothing now. We’re on disability. Four kids. You can’t do nothing really. … This food will last maybe three days.”
She said she’s grateful for the food pantries and food banks, and she said she’ll come back again when the food runs out.
Under the new guidance, there’s a recalculated revised formula. The USDA reduced the maximum SNAP allotment for a household by 50 percent but there are other factors as well. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration said that “SNAP assumes households spend 30 percent of their net income on food. Therefore, SNAP benefits are calculated by subtracting 30 percent of the household’s net income from the federally determined maximum allotment.”
The Feeding Indiana’s Hungry executive director, Emily Weikert Bryant, says each household benefits must be recalculated, which can take a lot of time, and, for SNAP families, food is an urgent need. “We’re waiting for further guidance, and I think there’s additional litigation that’s continuing that’s going to shed light on what we’re going to see, but, at this moment, it’s difficult to know what households will get.”
Feeding Indiana’s Hungry recommends using Community Compass to locate nearby pantries and free groceries. The app and website keep updated hours of operation for the pantries and grocery locations.
This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/politics/partial-snap-benefits-for-november-delayed-by-at-least-a-week.
