In a little over a week, more than 450,000 New Mexicans will likely lose their food benefits amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.
In the state with the nation’s highest rate of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program reliance, the abrupt cancellation of SNAP nationwide will mean 250,000 households could go hungry and grocery stores would lose significant revenue, local food bank representatives told a legislative committee Wednesday in Las Cruces.
“People are scared. They don’t know how they’re going to feed their families. And frankly, if the shutdown does go on any longer, we are looking at a public health crisis,” Jason Riggs, advocacy director of the Roadrunner Food Bank, said Wednesday.
On Oct. 10, SNAP administrators at the federal Agriculture Department warned states, including New Mexico, that shortfalls left SNAP without adequate funding in November. As a result of the shortfall, the department ordered states not to submit client files to statewide SNAP vendors that they’d need to approve SNAP purchases in November.
HCA Secretary Kari Armijo said on Oct. 15 that the state’s interpretation of the USDA order was that it effectively revoked SNAP retailers’ authorization to approve purchases, “so folks with SNAP benefits on their cards would not be able to access those benefits starting in November,” she said.
Still, she reported that the state was seeking additional clarity from USDA.
Marina Pina, a spokesperson for the state Health Care Authority, which oversees SNAP, did not immediately respond Wednesday to Source New Mexico’s request for an update on the SNAP cuts.
Riggs said Wednesday much remains unknown about how the nation’s food system will operate as of Nov. 1. For example, whether electronic benefit cards will still work in 10 days, or whether stores will still accept them, is an open question.
“I was in a national meeting of hunger advocates yesterday and a lot of states are reporting just chaos and confusion,” he said.
About 1,700 retailers statewide accept SNAP payments for groceries, according to state figures. More than half of them face high risk of significant revenue reductions, including closure, according to a recent Source analysis of Center for American Progress data.
Amid the uncertainty, Riggs and other food bank leaders warned that one thing is clear: They do not have anywhere near the capacity, especially without much notice, to make up the losses people will experience without SNAP.
SNAP currently provides nine times as much food assistance as food banks, Riggs said.
“Food banks cannot make up for that kind of gap, especially not by November,” he said.
Jill Dixon, director of the New Mexico Association of Food Banks and the executive director of The Food Depot, added that the state’s five food banks are rapidly preparing to do what they can. That means starting pop-up food distributions; buying more food and food storage; and activating volunteers.
Their response is “much like we did in the pandemic,” she said, “when you saw food banks step forward and rise and provide for people during closures and shutdowns.”
The Health Care Authority is also trying to expedite the delivery of roughly $8 million in funding for food banks lawmakers approved in the special legislative session earlier this month, but that’s still far less than $90 million in SNAP benefits the state expected to administer in November.
