The State of Indiana expects to take about a week to calculate what Hoosier SNAP recipients will receive under contingency funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The White House agreed this week to use the contingency fund to cover about half of SNAP’s normal budget.
Vinal Lee, with the Monroe County Salvation Army, said it’s welcome news. But his organization felt the effects of a lapse in SNAP funding toward the end of October, as benefits ran out. Its downtown pantry saw record numbers in the last couple of weeks.
“About half of those people who joined us were here for the first time, and most identify as being SNAP recipients,” he said.
The agriculture department has provided guidance to the states on how to calculate the temporary benefits during the shutdown, factoring in household size and net income.
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Julio Alonso, director of the Hoosier Hills Foodbank, provides food support in south central Indiana. He’s happy to hear some funding is coming, but it still leaves a gap in food support for the short term and means people will be leaning more on pantries and food banks. Hoosier Hills bought additional truckloads of food to prepare for an anticipated rise in need.
“It is still only 50 percent of what (SNAP recipients) would normally expect,” he said. “So, we still have to operate under the assumption that beneficiaries are not going to see their SNAP benefits in November, with the hope that they will at least start at some point to see part of those benefits.”
