Nevada approves $30M to help fund food banks for expected influx

Less than two days before around 500,000 Nevadans on food stamps were slated to lose nutritional benefits, state lawmakers affirmed $30 million to help food banks stay afloat as the government shutdown enters the one-month mark.

The request by Gov. Joe Lombardo’s administration was approved Thursday evening by the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee.

The emergency dollars are only a fraction of the monthly $90 million allotted to Nevada by the federal government for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP.

Three Square Food Bank President and CEO Beth Martino said a cash flow will put a dent the in the increased need, but that “no dollar amount” can fully solve the problem.

“There’s probably no way that philanthropy can fill this gap,” she said. “The answer is to reopen the government and run these programs as intended.”

Martino said the influx of money will help keep food dispensaries afloat for up to 12 weeks but that the effort will present logistical challenges.

“One of the reasons that SNAP is such an effective hunger-relief program is because it’s highly efficient,” she added. Martino expressed gratitude that the state had stepped up to help.

$38 million infusion into the system

Officials said that all food-insecure Nevadans, including more than 20,000 furloughed federal workers, will have an opportunity to seek food at dispensaries.

The new dollars will flow to Three Square, the food bank that supplies more than 150 pantries in Southern Nevada, and the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, which supplies its nonprofit network in that part of the state.

Both nonprofits are already spending the $8.6 million Gov. Lombardo’s office allocated in recent days from an account funded by savings from state projects.

An additional $200,000 for Nevada National Guard members, who will logistically help the food banks, also was greenlit Thursday.

“The State anticipates that the initial $38 million will provide critical support for Nevada families throughout November, but the State will continue to seek sustainable funding solutions as the federal shutdown continues,” according to Lombardo’s office.

Transferring $30.2 million from an Interim Finance Committee contingency fund will leave the account with just under $3 million.

Debi Reynolds, Lombardo’s deputy chief of staff, said the administration was planning to request dollars to replenish the account during an expected upcoming special session in November.

Influx of hungry Nevadans expected

Southern Nevada pantries have seen an increase of about 16 percent in their need for food over the past four months, Martino said.

She said Three Square didn’t yet know October figures.

“I can tell you, anecdotally, that we have certainly seen an increase above and beyond that,” Martino said.

New clients have included “lots of federal workers,” she noted.

Nevada congressional Democrats had called on the Republican governor “to use every tool and resource available” to continue supporting SNAP, including calling for a special session.

Lombardo countered that rules set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture had prevented states from directly funding the program. Democrats have argued that the agency’s since-retracted government shutdown plan included a stipulation that allowed SNAP to continue being funded past Nov. 1.

Axios reported that a recent USDA memo stated that those dollars could not pay for food stamps and that states could not be reimbursed if they stepped in to help.

Attorney General Aaron Ford on Wednesday joined Nevada in a lawsuit trying to push the Trump administration to release emergency funds for SNAP.

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager said Thursday he was ready to declare a fiscal emergency to tap into Nevada’s “rainy day fund,” which sits at $1.29 billion, to infuse cash assistance directly into electronic benefit transfer cards.

Robert Thompson, administrator for the Division of Social Services, said that a regional USDA official had warned Nevada not to do it in writing, even when the ability was there.

“The mechanisms are there that we could put dollars in those EBT funds, but they have advised me that it would put our programs at risk in the future,” he said. “We do not have permission to use the data.”

Yeager said Nevada officials had to do everything they can to fund SNAP.

“Maybe the federal government needs civics lessons (to show) that their power derived from the United States, all 50 of these states,” he said. “Without us, they don’t have power.”

Logistical challenges

Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro said a solution was needed because “for hungry families, there is not another choice. We have an obligation to do that.”

The Nevada food bank said they hadn’t encountered issues sourcing an increased food supply and that they’re prepared to help feed people in need in the entire state, including rural areas.

Martino highlighted the logistical challenges which will start to show in the coming days.

“We always try to serve people with dignity and I would not expect it to be a dignified system where seniors and families have to wait eight hours in a car line to get a box of food, and that’s what we’ll be faced with,” she said. “Frankly, we will see what happens on Saturday. We may start to see that occurring on Saturday.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.