If it's not resolved soon, the federal government shutdown will start hurting people who receive SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps. Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow is sounding the alarm.
Critchlow invited reporters to his office Tuesday to share the news. The USDA recently directed all states not to send November funding to the SNAP program’s EBT vendors in case the shutdown isn’t resolved by then.
Critchlow says that would affect about 30,000 people in St. Joseph County and about 20,000 in South Bend.
“The one thing we need to do right away is make sure people are sharing the word about this because November is next week. And with all this uncertainty in the air, people need to know now – I mean trust me, I’ve seen it a million times now – people are not following the news, they’re not following what’s going on, we have to get the word out that people are going to be going to the grocery store expecting that their EBT card will work in November and it’s not going to work, that these funds will possibly not be there.”
Critchlow says the news comes as he’s seeing more people struggle with rising utility, housing and food costs. His office will expand their food pantry hours and they ask the community to increase food donations.
“Now is the time for residents to get involved and to rise up as a community and start to fill this need because we could have a lot of hungry people on our hands over these next couple of weeks.”
