Washington state will give food banks $2.2 million per week as they deal with the potential end of food stamp benefits due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The Trump administration says it can’t fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting Saturday, despite billions of dollars in reserves. This is expected to send Washington’s SNAP recipients to local food banks and pantries to feed their families.
In May, the most recent month for which federal data is available, over 905,000 Washingtonians received a total of $167 million in SNAP benefits.
Food banks are already seeing heightened demand and preparing for broader Republican-backed cuts to SNAP that are still to come.
Gov. Bob Ferguson on Tuesday directed the state Department of Social and Health Services to transfer nearly $2.2 million each week to the state’s Department of Agriculture for grants to food banks. The first infusion would come Monday, Nov. 3.
“If you’re able to support your local food bank, either with donations or volunteering, I encourage you to do so,” Ferguson, a first-term Democrat, said in a statement. “We’ll keep looking for innovative solutions at the state level.”
The Department of Social and Health Services administers SNAP in Washington, while the federal government funds the program for low-income residents.
Ferguson’s move comes as Democratic attorneys general and governors across the country, including Washington’s Nick Brown, sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its refusal to provide SNAP payments in November.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s announcement contradicts earlier statements that said the agency’s contingency fund would continue to provide SNAP benefits during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1.
“Trump is picking and choosing what gets funded and what doesn’t during the shutdown,” Brown said in a statement.
The states involved in the lawsuit asked a federal judge in Massachusetts to rule by Friday on their motion to compel the Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits in November.
Washington’s separate nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, has enough funding for most of November amid the impasse in Congress. That additional federal funding came from tariff revenue.
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