COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – The federal government shutdown has hit three weeks, marking the second-longest shutdown ever, and if it continues for just a few more days, a program that feeds millions of Americans is at risk.
The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, sent a letter to states on Oct. 10, warning them it does not have enough money to fund the program into November.
SNAP, which used to be known as the food stamps program, is fully funded by the federal government and provides monthly food assistance to millions of Americans living near or below the poverty line.
Around 560,000 people are enrolled in South Carolina.
“People who are eligible for SNAP are often living day to day, trying to make ends meet,” said Sue Berkowitz with Appleseed Legal Justice Center, an organization that advocates for lower-income South Carolinians. “It could mean not being able to put food on the table.”
SNAP recipient households in South Carolina receive an average of $384 each month, and about half of those recipients are children, while about one in five is older than 50.
Berkowitz said many who are elderly, disabled or on a fixed income spend the little money they have on rent and electricity, so the federal program is critical to ensuring they can eat.
“SNAP is the number one defense to hunger in our nation,” Berkowitz said.
Around 40 million Americans are enrolled in the program, and if they don’t receive those benefits next month, food banks and pantries are preparing for a major increase in need.
“So we’re making decisions right now to at least help mitigate some of that,” Harvest Hope CEO Erinn Rowe said. “There’s no way we’re going to be able to fill that gap, but we at least want to show up and help mitigate as much as possible.”
Harvest Hope is the state’s largest food bank, servicing pantries, soup kitchens and South Carolinians directly in 20 counties across the Upstate, Midlands, and Pee Dee.
Rowe said the shutdown comes at a time of year when it typically sees a surge in demand, but its donations are down.
Harvest Hope anticipates that a total SNAP shutoff would lead to a demand on food banks and pantries unlike any they have seen in recent memory, even more than the skyrocketing need they saw during the pandemic.
“The amount of individuals affected by this decision is astronomical compared to our COVID numbers. It’s not a rational process that’s being executed right now because there’s actually humans on the other end that are going to struggle to get food on their tables,” Rowe said.
She said the short period of time between when the federal government warned SNAP could be threatened by a prolonged shutdown and when those benefits would actually be cut off inhibits people from doing much to prepare.
Similarly, she said Harvest Hope does not know how much food to purchase because no one knows when the shutdown will end, and they don’t want it to go to waste if the government reopens before November.
Just as it expects more people to depend on its services, Harvest Hope said it will depend on help from the community.
“We’re looking to purchase food. We’re looking for our neighbors to come in and help do food drives because we need to fill up our warehouses to help fill that need,” Rowe said.
A number of other states, both Republican- and Democratic-led, have warned their residents of impacts SNAP will face if the shutdown continues into November.
Some of them have said if they were to fund SNAP next month by tapping into their own reserves, the federal government has said it will not reimburse them.
Other states have said they also don’t know if SNAP recipients would be able to use benefits they saved from previous months into November.
But there has been no public messaging on this so far in South Carolina.
The Department of Social Services manages SNAP in the state and said it plans to release more details on Wednesday.
DSS directly reports to the governor’s office, but a spokesman for the governor said Tuesday they had no comment.
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Federal shutdown threatens food aid for hundreds of thousands in SC
