PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a declaration of disaster emergency on Friday, releasing $5 million in state funds to food banks.
The move will help the nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians who rely on SNAP benefits, which could be suspended for the first time in the food aid program’s history because of the government shutdown.
"When I signed this declaration, that also allows us to cut through the red tape and get funds to food banks, and as quickly as possible, the dollars that I released today will be in our food banks to allow them to purchase more food for this coming week,” Shapiro said.
While this will provide some assistance, Shapiro says Pennsylvania can not possibly fill the gap left by losing $366 million a month — the amount the state gets each month in SNAP funds for its enrollees.
Shapiro said he worked the phones among the private sector and raised $1 million for a SNAP Emergency Relief Fund.
"I want to invite anyone who is fortunate in their lives to contribute to the SNAP Emergency Relief Fund,” he said.
Whitney Drukier, operations manager for the Mitzvah food program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, said food stamp recipients are trying to figure out what to do for groceries.
“We are already [at] a drastic increase in our clients coming into our pantry saying they are in need of food supplies,” Druker said. “Some cuts have already been made. People are already seeing it in their accounts.”
This week, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware joined 25 states suing the Trump administration to force the use of billions in congressionally approved contingency funds to fund SNAP during the shutdown. On Friday, two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to pay for SNAP using emergency reserve funds during the shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to SNAP starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net — and it costs about $8 billion per month nationally.
Delaware declared a state of emergency to use state funds to fund the SNAP program for residents on a week-by-week basis.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.