Government Shutdown Threatens SNAP Benefits for Coloradans in November

Food banks across Colorado are pleading for extra donations this week as the federal government shutdown threatens to cut off food assistance for more than six hundred thousand residents on November first.

The state Department of Human Services says federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP — has been frozen. Without that money, Colorado can’t issue about a hundred twenty million dollars in food stamps for next month.

Governor Jared Polis says he’s asking the legislature for ten million dollars in emergency funding to help food banks through mid-December. The money would go out in two-week increments, allowing food banks to buy as much as fifty million dollars’ worth of groceries at retail value. Polis is also urging Coloradans to donate directly and reminding families that free school meals are still available for children.

SNAP provides an average of three hundred sixty-seven dollars a month to eligible households. Nearly half of recipients in Colorado are children, and many others are seniors or people with disabilities.

Food banks across the state are already bracing for a surge in demand. In many places, local groups are issuing countywide calls for donations. In Denver, Youth on Record is launching “The Dinner Table Project” to distribute hundreds of free meal bags each week.

The shutdown is now in its fourth week, and the Senate is expected to vote again on a bill that would reopen the government. Until then, food banks say they are the last line of defense for Coloradans at risk of going hungry.