Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced legislation this week to support food banks and other resources as the Supplemental Nutrition\u00a0Assistance Program is set to freeze on Nov. 1 amid the government shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The proposed\u00a0Pennsylvania Food Bank and Hunger Relief Grant Program would provide $50 million to 18 food banks, another $10 million to meal distribution service Meals on Wheels and $2 million to the state’s Department of Agriculture for administrative costs. On Tuesday, 22 Democratic state senators sponsored the legislation, and a companion bill in the House was introduced by\u00a010 representatives\u00a0on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MORE:\u00a0Pa., N.J. among 25 states suing USDA for release of SNAP benefit funding<\/a><\/p>\n SNAP provides a debit card that gets refilled at the start of each month for groceries for 2 million Pennsylvania residents, including\u00a0475,000 people in Philadelphia \u2014 almost a third of the city’s population. Recipients are primarily seniors, families with children and people with disabilities. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it won’t refill benefits until the end of the shutdown, which reached its 29th day on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n State Sen. Art Haywood, who represents portions of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties, called the SNAP pause “an emergency.”\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis will crush families and neighbors across Pennsylvania, and these changes will leave people hungry,” Haywood said at a news conference Tuesday. “It\u2019s hard to be in a more outrageous position than to be holding up the food for our neighbors. Denying people food is a violation of their dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n The money would be reallocated from the state’s “rainy day fund”<\/a> to the food banks and services to address food insecurity. It won’t be enough to cover the $366 million that Pennsylvania residents receive each month from SNAP, but legislators hope it will help keep pantries, community fridges and food drives in supply.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Pennsylvania, a pause on SNAP is a particular problem as the state also has yet to approve an annual budget. Two state food distribution programs,\u00a0the State Food Purchase Program and the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System, also haven’t been funded since legislators first came to an impasse in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rep. Tarik Khan (D-Philadelphia), who introduced the companion bill, said that the state is “heading into a catastrophe right now.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s a basic health and safety issue, and the fact that the federal government is doing this to people, basically taking their food away from them, … it’s the lowest, most depraved thing to watch,” Khan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even with the support from the state, food banks said they won’t be able to fill the void left by SNAP, which is by far Pennsylvania’s biggest resource for fighting hunger. For every $1 worth of food provided by a food bank, SNAP provides $9, according to Community Legal Services<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n “To think that every food bank would have to grow ninefold overnight to keep up with the need is just not realistic,”\u00a0George Matysik, executive director of Philly’s Share Food Program, told PhillyVoice last week<\/a>.\u00a0“So, what that means for us is that we’re going to feel a crush for our services unlike anything we’ve ever felt before.”<\/p>\n The lack of SNAP benefits might also put a damper on the economy, with less money going to grocery stores and farmers. Approximately a quarter from each $1 spent through SNAP goes to farmers and ranchers,\u00a0according to the USDA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and New Jersey Attorney General\u00a0Matthew Platkin (D) were among 25 states that filed a lawsuit<\/a> against the federal government to release funding for SNAP. The suit says that the USDA has contingency funding that’s already been approved by Congress in previous appropriations bills and that other agencies have received emergency funding during the shutdown. The USDA has said it won’t tap into the contingency funds to support SNAP.\u00a0<\/p>\n