A few days ago someone remembered that the Trump Down’s closing of the United States Department of Agriculture meant that none of the 38 million Americans getting food stamps (including better than 700,000 in Missouri) would receive benefits in February.
Thanks to a quirk in the last passed Continuing Resolution to keep the government open (the one which expired before Christmas), USDA could issue February benefits – provided they were in the hands of participants before January 21st.
Thursday and Friday my Inbox filled with messages first from Washington, then from anti-hunger advocates around the country. State by state, government agencies agreed to issue February’s stamps by January 20.
This is not an easy thing. Bureaucracies depend upon routine. Each month’s food stamp activities include a mess of deadlines, complicated calculations, millions of updates and forms to process, and, well, some backroom stuff that’s close to alchemy. And, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps’ official name) moves around $5 billion a month through the economy. That’s real money which winds up in every grocery store in the country. Getting everything correct is an often missed opportunity under regular order.
Remember, Missouri handles food stamps via Call Centers, three non-compatible computer systems and about half the staff they need. Yes, I expect that the state will send out a notice to the 330,000 households getting SNAP. Unfortunately, it takes DSS around a week to get an emergency notice written, approved and into the mail. Then it may take five or more mail days for the envelopes to get to mailboxes. So, assuming they started work on January 11, many families won’t get that DSS notice until days after the benefits hit their EBT card.
A few Missourians will learn about this by visiting the right page on the Department of Social Service website. [ https://dss.mo.gov/ click on the first grey dot in the top left box] As a group, alas, low-income households are the least likely Americans to have regular internet access…Most will get a surprise in the mail.
The good news: this month food stamp participants will actually have enough in stamps to buy enough nutritious stuff to fulfill the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan! (By formula, stamps cover less than two-thirds of the TFP.)
The bad news: even if the Trump Down ends in a few days, 38 million Americans (including 700,000 Missourians) won’t get their next food help for six weeks!
And, as made clear by directives from USDA, no one will get any benefits in March if the Trump Down lasts that long.
On top of that, we need to remember that many unpaid federal employees will soon be needing food help. (TSA line staff, for example, make around $37,000 a year when they are paid. )
So, if the Trump Down continues, late February and March will be a very challenging time for pantries. As I’ve noted many times, pantries cannot replace food stamps. They typical pantry family order provides three days of meals, or, about 1/7th the amount of food SNAP benefits provide.
Please prepare to be extra generous. It’s not our struggling neighbors’ fault that they’ve become collateral damage in the Trump Down.
Glenn