Gov. Andy Beshear is sending the National Guard to staff food banks as about 600,000 Kentuckians experience delays in SNAP benefits from the federal government.
"What this means is that every dollar we're providing to food banks can go toward purchasing food and we can provide the extra staffing that's needed as they see a surge in families coming in," Beshear said Wednesday during his weekly Team Kentucky briefing.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will begin processing SNAP payments Thursday, which will only be half of what recipients typically receive each month. How soon those benefits will arrive is also unknown.
"The president has both funding and the authority to fund SNAP during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so," Beshear said. "People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made."
On Monday, Beshear announced he was tapping the state's budget reserves to send $5 million to Feeding Kentucky, a network of seven food banks that provide groceries to those in need across all 120 counties.
Beshear has also directed more than $12 million in state dollars to support the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program during the month of November.
The federal government shutdown is now the longest in US history.
Last week, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use contingency funds to provide SNAP benefits for the 42 million Americans who rely on the food assistance program.
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