HARRISBURG, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to support food banks and meal service organizations, as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments are due to be withheld as of Nov. 1 during the federal government shutdown.
About 2 million Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP to feed their families and the Trump administration is withholding nearly $366 million in monthly payments as the government shutdown continues.
Senate Democrats joined anti-hunger advocates in Harrisburg on Tuesday to draw attention to the anticipated missed SNAP payments and to propose legislation to deliver funding to food banks until the federal shutdown is resolved.
“It's hard to be in a more outrageous position than to be holding up the food for our neighbors,” said state Sen. Art Haywood of Philadelphia.
“We are in an emergency when 2 million individuals may not be able to have food to eat on Sunday, the second, Monday, the third, the fourth to fifth, the sixth to seventh — whenever the clowns in D.C. figure it out.”
During the press conference, Haywood announced that Gov. Josh Shapiro has joined a multi-state lawsuit against the federal government to release the SNAP reserve funding to keep the program running.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats introduced legislation to launch the Pennsylvania Food and Hunger Relief Grant Program. If passed, it would allocate $50 million from the state’s rainy day fund’s interest, while not touching the principal, to help food banks.
Hunger in Pennsylvania has risen 44% over two years, and the network of nine food banks service 1.7 million people annually. Julie Bancroft, CEO of Feeding Pennsylvania, said onsite pantries are already seeing their daily numbers double.
“They are fielding calls from the [Department of Veterans Affairs] and the [Transportation Security Administration] about resources for their employees who aren't being paid. Eight of our nine food banks are accessing cash reserves to keep their shelves stocked,” reported Bancroft, adding the demand was already high before the shutdown.
“We've let politics cloud our humanity. Outside of this building, real people are managing very real concerns about their own survival.”