Rhode Island takes steps to avert hunger amid projected halt to food aid
Melissa Cherney, Chief Executive Officer of the RI Community Food Bank
By Steve Klamkin Latino Public Radio
As the spectre of hunger due to frozen federal food assistance hangs over millions of Americans, governors and attorneys general in more than 20 states moved Tuesday to sue the Trump administration for its refusal to release food aid during the federal government shutdown, and Rhode Island’s governor declared a state of emergency to try to keep residents from going hungry.
“SNAP benefits feed more than 145,000 Rhode Islanders every month,” said Gov. Dan McKee Tuesday afternoon during a news conference at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, referring to the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program, informally known as food stamps.
“The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) has billions of dollars in contingency funds for such an emergency, and they’re not sharing those dollars with the states,” McKee said. “It’s unbelievable, but that’s where we are.”
“It’s the Trump’s administration version of ‘let them eat cake’, and it’s cruel,” McKee said.
With no end in sight to the month-long Congressional logjam over the budget for the new fiscal year that begins on Saturday, McKee said that under the emergency declaration, he will devote $6 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF program as a stop-gap measure.
Some 20,000 Rhode Island families, comprising about 65,000 individuals will receive 25% of their monthly SNAP benefit on November 1, and another 25% on November 16 if the federal government shutdown continues. The funds will be loaded onto recipients’ electronic benefit cards by the state.
Other private agencies and non-profit organizations are also stepping up to help.
The Rhode Island Foundation is advancing $1 million dollars to the effort, including $200,000 to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, and another $800,000 to other groups that help to feed Rhode Islanders.
The Rhode Island AFL-CIO is donating $10,000 to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, and says it has established 10 food donation locations at union halls around the state.
The United Way of RI is mobilizing its coalition of community partners to host food collections around the state to support local hunger relief programs. That is in addition to acting as a clearinghouse for information to those in need of assistance through its statewide, 2-1-1 telephone help center, providence answers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The state has also established an online information portal during the emergency, at SNAPsupport.ri.gov
Also on Tuesday, Rhode Island joined 24 states, most run by Democrats, filing suit in federal court in Boston against the USDA, seeking to compel the administration to continue to pay SNAP benefits from $82 billion in contingency funds.
The SNAP shutdown comes at an inopportune time, said Melissa Cherney, Chief Executive Officer of the Food Bank, where the shelves containing canned and packaged foods were relatively bare.
“It really is a perfect storm,” she said.
“It is a massive, massive crisis, but we’re calling on everyone to help us get out of it,” said Cherney who added, the Food Bank tries to maintain about a million pounds of food at any time, and can contain two million pounds, but is currently working with about 750,000 pounds of food.
“Before this crisis, our food donations were down, and our need was up,” she said, “so we were already serving more people with less food.
In an interview ahead of the news conference, George Ortiz, founder and Chief Executive Officer of the ELISHA Project said Rhode Island leaders should be more proactive in coming together to plan to deal with the crisis.
“Imagine if we as a state came together and grabbed all these community agencies and their leaders and said “let’s make a plan”. “So, why rush until it happens and put the fire out like firemen when you can be more proactive,” said Ortiz, an ex-Marine who said the Corps would not deploy until they had a plan, as well as several contingency plans.
In addition to repurposing food, household and hygiene items and clothing, the ELISHA Project distributed food last weekend to families who lined up for hours and miles from its Pawtucket headquarters in the former Apex building, into Providence.
