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SNAP stoppage hits home for hundreds in Martin Co.

ABOVE: Heaven’s Table volunteer Marvin Zehm puts boxes away on Wednesday for meals sent out across Martin County. Heaven’s Table is anticipating an influx of people using their services, due to the closure of SNAP application approvals effective immediately and benefits unavailable for current SNAP users if the government shutdown extends into November.

FAIRMONT – On Tuesday local officials were suddenly notified that SNAP will be impacted by the current federal government shutdown and uncertainty was cast on hundreds of Martin and Faribault County citizens.

Income Maintenance Manager for Health and Human Services of Faribault and Martin Counties, Nicole Worlds, said it all started at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

“We received an email from the Department of Children, Families and Youth that because of the federal shutdown, after [10 p.m. that day], we would not be allowed to approve benefits for new applicants,” she said. “They said anything pending that we hadn’t approved yet, we would not be able to approve those cases any longer.”

This meant that for those with pending SNAP applications, local public health employees were told they had less than 12 hours to get those who qualified approved.

“We set up a plan to ensure that everybody we had on our list that was pending, we were going to do everything we could to get them processed by 10 o’clock last night,” Worlds said. “We made multiple phone calls to people. We texted people, we reached out over and over and over again, trying to make sure that if your case was pending with us, if you could get us the information yesterday, we would take care of it.”

In this situation, Worlds said the rockstars were her staff who got as much as they could done, staying as long as necessary.

“We had 19 snap applications just yesterday, and they scrambled to get those people interviewed and get the work done so those folks will receive benefits.”

A follow-up email was sent on Wednesday morning saying the initial email got the timeline wrong, and public health workers actually had until end of day Wednesday to finish up enrollment proceedings. People can still apply for SNAP, but they cannot be approved due to the government shutdown.

There was no indication prior to these emails that this would happen.

“They had kept saying all along, everything since the government shutdown, was so far, we’re not affected.,” Worlds said. “We really didn’t have any idea until the email was sent yesterday (Tuesday) that it would go into effect.”

This wasn’t all. For those on SNAP, unless the government is reopened, benefits will not be sent out for November. This could impact a few thousand in Martin and Faribault counties.

“Currently, we have 685 cases that receive Federal Food support in Faribault County,” Worlds said. “That [includes] 1,352 people, and 479 of those people are children. In Martin County, there are 936 cases, with 1,863 people, and 676 of those are children.”

Overall, $269,000 in benefits across both counties will not be sent. From the communications she and her staff have had, Worlds said people are very scared.

“Food support is for working families and working people who don’t quite make enough to support their family,” she said. “A great majority of the people on food support do work. They’re not quite covering all the expenses. It’s a gap filler for our working people who are trying to scrape it together and make ends meet.”

Not only will the people of Martin and Faribault counties be affected, but the businesses that take EBT will feel an impact as well.

“That money in food support is then spent at Hy-Vee, Walmart, Fareway and [other] local businesses,” Worlds said. “When you’re taking away this food budget, this is income that gets spent in our community, it’s going to ripple out and affect businesses.”

For those currently utilizing SNAP, Worlds said it is really important to know your resources and let your voice be heard.

“Know the area, food shelf, the churches, different organizations that have food resources for you to tap into,” she said. “Contacting your senators or your congressman, letting them know how these kinds of decisions affect your life. It’s the personal stories that need to be told to our government so they know when they make a decision like this, how it’s affecting their constituents.”

Heaven’s Table Board Member Greta Lintelman said if funding is not sent out in November, they are anticipating an influx of people.

“We have new families every time we’re open,” she said. “We would anticipate that would increase pretty dramatically if it hangs on for a period of time.”

Coincidentally, Lintelman said they have made changes that make it a little easier to prepare for changes such as this.

“We have switched our deliveries with Second Harvest so that now we receive free food every week instead of every two weeks,” she said. “[This] makes a pretty dramatic difference, so you can react fairly fast to pick up more food to make sure that you have enough for everyone that drives through the front door here.”

Lintelman emphasized Heaven’s Table is here for people during this shaky time.

“We’re here for them,” she said. “We will do everything we can to maintain the same amount of food that we give out today to anyone. We have some partners in the city, Hy-Vee, Fareway and Kwik Trip are very generous with their rescue. We hope we can stretch that rescue. The capability of getting our freight from Second Harvest on a weekly basis is going to be a huge advantage in keeping up with demand. We will continue to try to satisfy everybody’s needs.”

For information on SNAP, visit dcyf.mn.gov. For local information from Martin and Faribault County Health and Human Services, visit fmchs.com/, call (507) 238-4757 for the Martin County Center and (507) 526-3265 for the Faribault County Center. For more information on Heaven’s Table or to donate, visit heavenstable.org/ or call (507) 238-5424.

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