(The Center Square) — With the federal government shutdown lumbering on, New Hampshire officials are scrambling to come up with plans to provide food for SNAP recipients who stand to lose their benefits with funding set to run out next week.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte said Thursday that the state’s contingency plans call for partnering with the New Hampshire Food Bank to increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients’ access to food through the organization’s mobile food pantry program and other pantries across the state.
Ayotte said the plan, if approved by the Executive Council and the Fiscal Committee, would expand the food pantries “to ensure vulnerable Granite Staters get the food they need in the event this shutdown continues.”
“I want to thank our partners at the New Hampshire Food Bank for joining us in this effort to ensure vulnerable Granite Staters get the food they need in the event this shutdown continues,” Ayotte said in a statement. “Now, politicians in Washington must get their act together and reopen the federal government so critical programs like SNAP and WIC can continue without disruption.”
More than 75,000 Granite Staters are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits beginning Nov. 1 if the government doesn’t reopen, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, and the state doesn’t have the funds to fill that gap.
Nationwide, more than 42 million low-income Americans are at risk of losing food assistance if the government shutdown — now in its fourth week — continues with Democrats and Republicans in Congress showing no signs of resolving the impasse.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP, has about $6 billion in a multi-year contingency fund. That’s short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover a full month of the program.
Nearly 40% of SNAP recipients nationwide are children 17 and younger, according to the USDA. About 20% are seniors aged 60 and older and the remaining 40% are adults aged 18 to 59, the agency says.
The Ayotte administration said it is also reaching out to parents of school aged children to notify them that the National School Breakfast and National School Lunch programs, which provide free and reduced meals at public schools, will continue to be available for eligible families.
“We recognize the importance of SNAP to New Hampshire residents, and we are monitoring this situation closely,” DHHS Commissioner Lori Weaver said in a statement. “We are working with our community partners across the state in an effort to limit disruptions for people who are experiencing food insecurity and are committed to helping people connect with resources for food assistance until the federal government shutdown is resolved or benefits are restored.”
