By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is sending the National Guard to staff food banks while more than 600,000 in the state await federal food assistance during the ongoing government shutdown.
This comes days after Beshear sent $5 million from the state’s “rainy day fund” to Feeding Kentucky, a network of food banks, and tasked the organization with buying more food during delays in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
In October, 645,461 used SNAP benefits to buy groceries in Kentucky. Those people are turning to food banks, which were already stretched thin in meeting the needs of a state with high rates of food insecurity and are now seeing even more visitors.
“What this means is that every dollar we’re providing to the food banks can go towards purchasing the food, and that we can provide the extra staffing that’s needed as they see a surge of families coming in,” Beshear said during a Wednesday press conference. “It will help ensure Feeding Kentucky and their partner food banks can focus on distributing meals without the hardship of finding additional staff.”
The Lantern has asked Feeding Kentucky for comment on this move.
Uncertainty has swirled around SNAP benefits as the U.S. government’s longest-ever shutdown continues into November.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in late October that it would not use contingency funds to keep SNAP benefits flowing, which left 42 million Americans to face uncertainty about how to afford groceries on Nov. 1.
Beshear joined other Democrats in suing over the decision, and several judges have said that the Trump administration can’t block the funds. Beshear then declared a state of emergency and directed $5 million from the state’s budget reserve trust fund to food banks that are part of the Feeding Kentucky network.
The USDA announced on Monday it will pay about half of November SNAP benefits, but they could take a while to make it to recipients’ hands, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reported.
Then, on Tuesday, President Donald Trump posted on social media that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
Beshear said Wednesday that his administration “received confirmation from the federal government that they will begin processing payments” on Thursday.
“Kentucky is ready, willing and able to work around the clock as quickly as possible once funding is received,” he said. “It’s important to remember SNAP benefits are typically staggered through the month, and therefore payments will be too, but I can assure you, our teams will be working day and night to make it happen.”
This story first appeared in the Kentucky Lantern, a member of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused non-profit news organization. It is reprinted here under Creative Commons license.
