Food Stamps ENDING Nov 1st: Heres What to Do in Each State

Because of the ongoing government shutdown food stamps now known as SNAP benefits will not be paid out starting from November 1st. About 42 million low-income Americans use this program and they will be cut off as of this Saturday. But many states are stepping in to provide some kind of assistance to make up for it although this varies wildly from state to state. In this video I want to go through many of the most popular states and a few that are doing notable things to help. If your state isn't mentioned I'll put links down below to articles where you can find info on every state. Hey financial warriors welcome to the show my name is Ben Hedges aka The Credit Shifu and on this channel I cover US credit cards, personal finance and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that do subscribe but let's get into the video. So what are SNAP benefits? Well it stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and it used to be called food stamps it dates back to the Great Depression in the 1930s and has existed ever since. It's basically government assistance with groceries which today is loaded onto EBT cards that you can use to buy qualifying items in supermarkets. So you cannot use an EBT card to buy alcohol for example but you can use it to buy bread, milk, meat, vegetables etc. To be approved for the program your income can't be higher than 130% of federal poverty level in most states and the average amount a single person receives is about $200 per month and a family of four gets an average of $700 per month. Now because of the government shutdown the USDA that runs the program won't be reloading EBT cards with funds as of November 1st. On the national level there are a couple of companies that are offering deals for example GOPUF which is a grocery delivery service is offering a $50 credit for SNAP eligible items split into two $25 credits for use in the month of November. You just need to have an EBT card linked to your account. I would set that up now just in case there's a problem with EBT system after November 1st and there is a page that tells you how to do it how to set it up and also the discount codes that you're going to need to use to get these credits. I'm going to paste that down below. Then DoorDash is also offering some relief by donating delivery of 1 million meals to food banks and also providing a one-time free delivery from SNAP-enabled stores if you use the code SNAPDD and you need to have a valid EBT card added to your account. Again I suggest you link your EBT card now and I'll put the link below so you can find out all the details. The GOPUF one is a better deal but every little helps. Then in addition to this every state has adopted its own measures to make up for the lack of funds. Although since the funding comes from the federal government normally it's unlikely that states will be able to load funds directly onto EBT cards. Some states are now suing the Trump administration to get access to emergency funds at USDA and some are using state funds to create other assistance for SNAP recipients like diverting more funds to food banks for example. So let's now go through the five most populous states. First up is California. 5.5 million people receive SNAP benefits in California. That's a huge number and I believe it's the highest of any state thanks to the big population and the fact that California is one of the few states that allows higher incomes. You can go up to 200% of the federal poverty level and receive SNAP benefits. In California other than suing the Trump administration Governor Gavin Newsom is directing 80 million dollars in state funding to food banks and has activated the National Guard to help. So basically if you live in California and you receive SNAP benefits normally when those benefits stop on November 1st what you are being advised to do is either call 211 but to be honest you'll probably get put on hold for a long time so I would say use the online system go to 211ca.org and you can search for food banks in whatever area you are in and you will be able to find addresses of the closest ones to you. I was actually pleasantly surprised with this it's actually a government website that works quite well for a If you are in LA County you can also use the LA Regional Food Bank website which is lafoodbank.org just click on find food on the top right and it'll give you a map of all the food banks. So although it isn't ideal these food banks probably won't run empty at least not at first since they have just received 80 million in extra state government funding. All right let's move on to the next most popular state and that is Texas. Texas government websites confirm Texans won't receive their food stamp benefits as of November 1st. There are about 3.5 million people on food stamps in Texas and so far the Texas state government doesn't appear to be doing anything on a state level to help. Local Texas media report that Celia Cole CEO of Feeding Texas which represents the state's food banks said her organization is asking lawmakers about state resources available to food banks if the federal shutdown continues long into November. Cole said her organization will work So there doesn't seem to be any special help or additional funding for food banks in Texas as of yet. If you want to go to a food bank though you will be eligible to use them as a SNAP recipient whose benefits are on hold. You can go to this website at the bottom of the screen and click on the food bank for your area and go to their website to find their locations. Moving on. Florida. Now Florida has 3 million people who receive SNAP benefits and it's another one of those states that aren't doing anything at a state level. However there are some organizations that are going to help. For example Meals on Wheels South Florida have said that they will provide meals to seniors who were previously receiving SNAP benefits. You can go to their site mosoflow.org slash senior snap relief to apply. You can also go to Florida food banks as well. You can find these on feedingflorida.org just click find food on the top right and you can search for food banks. Next state. New York. So New York is suing the government but in addition they first committed 11 million dollars and then separately announced another 30 million in food aid to cover 16 million meals for those in need. But actually when you consider that there are 3 million people in New York that receive SNAP benefits it's not really going to go that far. Governor Hochul has also said that she wants to have kids who are on free school meals take home food for themselves and other children in the household. There aren't really any details on that as of yet but it's something that is supposed to be happening so keep paying attention to it and maybe some details will come out soon. You can also go to the New York Department of Health's website to find your regional food bank which in theory should be well stocked because of this extra government funding. I will paste this page along with all the other pages and resources that I talk about in the description. All right next state. Pennsylvania. So Pennsylvania has not directed extra funding to food programs at the state level as of yet but there is a proposal from state senate democrats for 62 million dollars in funding which would cover about 15 percent of the monthly cost of the SNAP program in PA. But there are some other resources that you can take advantage of. To use Philadelphia as an example there are local media reports saying that community food programs have had a big increase in donations. One such program is the share food program which if you go to their website you can go on the find food page and look for either community fridges which are like food banks or for seniors you can apply for a food box to be delivered. You have to be over 60 years old and at 130 percent or less of the federal poverty level. So those are the five most populous states covered. I'm sorry most of them aren't really offering ideal solutions. I now want to cover though a few states and territories that are offering significant solutions to this. First of all we have Virginia. In Virginia 800,000 people receive SNAP benefits and governor Glenn Yonkin who is a republican so this is actually kind of unusual because normally republicans are against big government spending programs but he has actually declared a state of emergency and that the state government will use its budget surplus to cover SNAP benefits. It will cost the government 37 million dollars per week and the funds will be sent out weekly to all SNAP recipients starting November 3rd and they're actually going to be able to use the existing EBT cards so people signed up to SNAP in Virginia don't even need to do anything. Only difference is you have to wait until November 3rd okay to get funded not the first of the month. So you're going to get partial payments on November 3rd 5th and 7th and then a weekly payment for the rest of November or until the government reopens. So that is one successful example of a state government really doing something so congrats if you live in Virginia and receive SNAP benefits you don't need to worry. Next we have the US Virgin Islands. If you live in the US Virgin Islands and receive SNAP benefits a press release from the governor's office has confirmed that you will receive a check for half of the amount that you would normally receive for SNAP in November. It will be mailed to whatever address you used when you signed up for SNAP. Hawaii. This is another state that is actually doing something. They are setting aside 100 million dollars to help SNAP eligible families with housing and utility payments. I guess with this the logic being that it frees up funds from those families budgets because they're not having a housing payment that month so they can spend that money on food. This is because apparently Hawaii has a stockpile of federal funds for housing payments that cannot legally be directly used for food assistance. So making it available for housing is an indirect way of helping. You will supposedly be able to qualify if you're up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level with one child. The details on this are scarce so far but according to the article from Hawaii Public Radio they will be issuing more details on how to apply next Wednesday. And guys that is where I'm going to leave it for today. I hope that is helpful. If you are in a state not mentioned I will put an NPR article in the links below that lists out what's going on in every state and in some cases there will be some useful links in there that you can use to find food banks or other assistant programs. Otherwise just search the name of your state and then SNAP benefits on Google and there's going to be a lot of articles that you can find that show you alternatives. Thank you so much for watching guys. I hope it all goes well for you all in November and I hope the government reopens soon. Please subscribe for more personal finance tips and tricks. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.