DENVER (KDVR) — Recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Colorado remain in limbo as the federal government shutdown continues.
On Monday, federal officials announced they would release partial funding for the food assistance program. However, it remains unclear how much money Coloradans will receive or when the funding will be distributed.
To fill the gap, some county governments are taking matters into their own hands.
Summit County commissioners plan to vote Tuesday on a proposal to spend more than $100,000 on grocery store gift cards for their 1,400 residents who rely on SNAP benefits. That’s roughly 45% of what the federal government would typically distribute in the county each month.
“Even if the federal government were to release money over the next couple of days, it still takes the state a certain amount of time to get those funds locally loaded onto people’s cards,” said Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue. “So certainly for the next two weeks, it’s not business as normal for a lot of these families.”
If approved, SNAP recipients with proof of eligibility could begin picking up gift cards as early as Wednesday.
“There’s no other disposable income for many of these families from month to month,” Pogue said. “It is a choice between having the money to eat and not having the money to eat.”
A similar plan is underway in Pitkin County, where officials are preparing to distribute $67,000 in food assistance this month to about 235 families. The county is also funding additional supplies for its local food pantry, hoping to help people who work in the county but live elsewhere.
“Where we were stocking one to two days a week before, we might be stocking three to four days a week,” said Lindsay Maisch, Pitkin County’s human services director.
Pitkin, Summit prepare to cover SNAP gap for next month
Both Pitkin and Summit counties say their programs will end once federal funding is restored, but they’re prepared to cover the gap for at least the next month.
“When you have over 330 people in your own county — a small county like ours — who might not have money to eat, that is a mass care issue,” she said.
Maisch and Pogue say the only reason the two counties are able to pass out this money is because the demand for SNAP in those areas is relatively small.
But in larger counties, including Boulder and Denver, spokespeople say they do not have the budget capacity to do the same. Those counties’ monthly SNAP distributions run into the millions of dollars.
Both Summit and Pitkin leaders said they do not expect to be reimbursed for their food assistance costs once the federal government reopens.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
