More than 1 million people in North Carolina felt the shutdown personally when SNAP Benefits didn't get paid.
On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Stein and Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt volunteered at a local food bank to highlight the need. There, Stein spoke about the impact that freezing SNAP benefits has had on families around the state.
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As a result, his office, alongside private partners, provided nearly $22 million to North Carolina Food Banks to support families who are struggling to put food on the table during this shutdown.
“Their role has become all the more important since the failure of the federal government,” Stein said.
On Tuesday, he presented the food bank with a $3.3 million check to continue its work helping food-insecure families and said he hopes the development in the nation’s capital this week will bring an end to the shutdown.
“I am pleased that it appears we are on a glidepath in Washington, where the snap benefits will be fully honored, hopefully by the end of this week,” he continued. “But that is why organizations like the food bank are critical, and they are critical year-round.”
Amy Beros, the president and CEO of the Foodbank of Central and Eastern NC, says they've seen a need like never before since January, and that has only been exacerbated by the shutdown.
“We’ve seen a drastic increase in need both from federal workers who are going without paychecks and now from SNAP delays," Beros said. "We are very hopeful that SNAP will be reinstated in full by the end of the month. But we know that it’s going to take time for people to catch up after these delays happened.”
The staff are hopeful that the shutdown coming to an end will help alleviate some of the increased need they've seen in the past few weeks.