Shutdown could hold up food assistance under SNAP program for 160,000 LIers

WASHINGTON — Food assistance relied upon by nearly 3 million New Yorkers — and more than 160,000 Long Islanders — could be delayed next month if the U.S. government shutdown continues, state officials are being warned.

The Trump administration is directing states to stop the process of issuing monthly food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the name for the program previously known as food stamps.

If the ongoing lapse of federal appropriations to agencies and programs continues, "there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the nation," a memo to states from the Food and Nutrition Service warns.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday criticized "Washington Republicans" for "playing political games" with a vital program she said lives depend on, "to inflict pain on millions of hardworking American families."

On Long Island, the program is instrumental in placing fruits, vegetables and other food on the table of many vulnerable families and generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for groceries and other food providers each month, multiple area food banks said in phone interviews Thursday.

Losing out on benefits for even a month, they warn, will place undue pressure on local food banks and soup kitchens at a moment when those places are already seeing a marked increase in demand. For instance, Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Food Bank said they’re seeing a 30% average increase in demand across their member kitchens and food pantries this year.

“If people that were able to buy groceries because they received SNAP benefits no longer are able to make do, they’re going to overload the system,” said Michael Haynes, Long Island Cares’ vice president of government relations, advocacy and social policy. “They’re going to be going to our pantries, our kitchens in record numbers.”

In New York, SNAP benefits using electronic transfers are typically deposited into recipient accounts during the first week of the month. The total dollar amount that would normally go out to New Yorkers in November was not available. But the latest available monthly total was $642 million, dating from July, according to the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Hochul asserted the federal government should be doing everything in its power to keep this funding flowing. She said the state cannot backfill the federal funded food program using state dollars.

Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) called Republicans "shameful and cruel" for not keeping the food aid going. “Thousands of Nassau County seniors, veterans and families count on SNAP to put food on the table," Gillen said. "The Administration should reverse course and release the funds that New York state is owed immediately.”

But Republicans blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for jeopardizing food assistance. “While Senator Schumer cynically said that ‘every day gets better for us,’ his shutdown is making every day worse for New Yorkers,” Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said in a statement. 

 And Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) also called on Democrats to vote to reopen the government. “Our gaslighting governor has it backwards," LaLota said. "It’s Chuck Schumer and 43 other Senate Democrats who are blocking status-quo funding for important programs like SNAP."

The news of the federal alert to halt SNAP assistance came as the government shutdown was in its 16th day on Thursday — and on Friday will officially become the second-longest federal closure in history.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) called for a compromise solution to get the government back open and keep the food assistance program running.

"Millions of families depend on this support to put food on the table," Suozzi said. "Meanwhile, the U.S. government just helped fund a financial bailout for Argentina. If we can send billions overseas, we can make feeding hungry children here at home a top priority."

Already, SNAP recipients often don’t receive enough benefits to cover monthly food cost and can find themselves also using food pantries to tide them over from month to month, experts say.

Even a temporary pause in those food benefits, they say, will make the math of food insecurity intensely more difficult.

“It's a delicate balance between SNAP, their own income and then using the emergency food system — food banks and food pantries,” Haynes said. “And, if you take off one leg of that triangle, it gets hard.”

Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO of Island Harvest Food Bank, noted the government’s decisions are having a “cascading ripple effect” at a time when more people in need are turning to nonprofits that might have had their government funding slashed. In the past few months, she said Island Harvest Food Bank has lost at least $4 million in government cuts for various programs. Officials there are expecting more.

“We're careening toward a disaster in the emergency food system,” she said, later noting: “We're getting close to a crisis point.”

Even now, many people experiencing food insecurity can’t qualify for SNAP for several reasons, including because they exceed the income thresholds, experts say. SNAP, Dresner noted, is a more efficient method to deliver food to underserved communities than the emergency food system, which can’t make up for a gap in the federal program.

“Our vulnerable community is being put in the middle and becoming a pawn just to make points,” Dresner said.