Lawmakers on Thursday authorized sending nearly $40 million to food banks, a stopgap measure to help families who rely on federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that will stop flowing Saturday because of the government shutdown. 

The Interim Finance Committee (IFC), which approves payments to state agencies while the Legislature is out of session, unanimously signed off on directing $30.2 million from a contingency fund toward food banks. The state has already sent $8.6 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding to the food banks, bringing the total amount to $38.8 million.

The state’s legislative and executive branches introduced their emergency funding plan last weekend, a move that the food banks celebrated even as they emphasize it can’t completely fill the gap of losing SNAP.

Some lawmakers want Nevada to send residents cash assistance directly, but state administrators say that the federal government has told them doing so would be illegal.

SNAP helps 1 in every 6 Nevadans — or nearly 500,000 people — purchase groceries. The federal government sends the state approximately $90 million every month for SNAP benefits.

The halt in benefits is expected to force people to temporarily shift their normal food-buying routines at grocery stores toward emergency-style arrangements, such as drive-through food banks. 

At the IFC meeting Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) raised concerns that temporarily replacing SNAP with food bank operations was an imperfect solution for vulnerable Nevadans who cannot afford to reach pantries on a regular basis. 

“I appreciate that we are searching for solutions,” Cannizzaro said. “But if you think about a working-class family, you have parents who are working multiple jobs and kids who are in school. … Trying to find the time to sit in an eight-hour line to get a box of food is just not feasible for them.” 

The crisis reaches beyond Nevada. More than 41 million Americans receive SNAP food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a memo last week stating it would not tap into a $5 billion contingency fund to pay for November benefits. That decision triggered a lawsuit filed Tuesday by more than two dozen states, including Nevada.

At a Tuesday event celebrating a new grant for charter schools in Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, said it would be “very beneficial” if the USDA released its contingency funds.

“That was a request we had made, and we were advised that would not happen,” he said. 

The IFC vote comes after the Nevada Board of Examiners — composed of the governor, the attorney general and the secretary of state — unanimously approved the contingency fund transfer on Wednesday. 

Where the funding will go

The $38 million plan will send money to the state’s major food banks, the Food Bank of Northern Nevada (FBNN) and Three Square, to buy bulk amounts of extra food, some of which they will send to the hundreds of organizations the food banks partner with.

The state will also dedicate $200,000 to pay Nevada’s National Guard to assist with distribution efforts.

“All levels of the state are being incredibly helpful and supportive,” said Beth Martino, president of Three Square, in a Tuesday interview with The Nevada Independent. 

Martino explained that Three Square has channels to make “very quick purchases” of food and has already started buying more food, which it will then send to its 150-plus partner organizations.

According to FBNN’s emergency response plan, the group works with more than 145 partner agencies and more than 40 school-based pantries, serving about 160,000 Nevadans every month. These partners will ramp up services and expand hours to serve people during the SNAP stoppage, which FBNN estimated would increase demand by 25 percent in the coming month, equivalent to 40,000 new customers. 

Martino at the IFC meeting estimated that 25 percent to 35 percent of Nevada’s SNAP recipients would seek resources from food banks instead, requiring Three Square to “almost double our distribution to meet that need.”

Along with sending more food to partners, FBNN and Three Square will ramp up their own food distribution operations. Three Square will be operating emergency distribution sites at four Las Vegas locations on Saturday, the day SNAP recipients would have normally seen their benefit cards loaded with new funds. Updated information on FBNN’s distribution schedule is available on the group’s website. 

At the IFC meeting Thursday, a representative from the National Guard said that the force’s members will be primarily responsible for working behind the scenes, organizing and packaging food that arrives at food banks’ warehouses.

Direct cash assistance a better option, some argue

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) called for more drastic action on Wednesday, urging the state to “fully fund SNAP benefits” by drawing on the state’s $1.3 billion rainy day fund.

Tapping this fund requires a joint fiscal emergency declaration from the governor and the Legislature (or the Interim Finance Committee, if the Legislature is not in session) or for collected tax revenue to fall at least 5 percent below projected amounts.

The governor’s office has pushed back on the notion the state could use the rainy day fund to directly pay for November SNAP benefits. The U.S Department of Agriculture denied the state permission to use its SNAP database to send recipients state money, according to a letter Lombardo wrote to congressional representatives earlier this week.

In that letter, Lombardo also referred to USDA guidance that states would need to set up a new program, distinct from SNAP, to remain compliant with federal regulations. 

“The restrictions on SNAP are troublesome,” Lombardo said at the charter school event this week, noting the confidentiality required regarding program participants. He also said the federal government would not reimburse Nevada for setting up a state-run version of SNAP. 

Yeager asked at the IFC meeting if the state could send money directly to the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that SNAP recipients use for their grocery shopping. 

Robert Thompson, administrator for Nevada’s Division of Social Services, said it would take a week for the state to set up a direct cash assistance plan, a shorter time frame than the six weeks Lombardo estimated were required to guarantee compliance at Tuesday’s charter school event.

But Thompson said USDA representatives have emphasized in “numerous conversations” that “it is not permissible for us to tap into the data from the SNAP program to fund with our state dollars” due to the structure of Nevada’s assistance program. 

“We could put dollars on those EBT cards,” Thompson said. “But they have advised me it would put our programs at risk in the future. They would not quantify for me what that risk meant.”

The state will not be reimbursed by the federal government for the $30 million contingency spending. Lawmakers indicated at the IFC meeting they will replenish the contingency fund during the upcoming special session.

At the charter school event Tuesday, Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) pushed back on Lombardo’s characterization, arguing the state could use data on other food and income assistance programs to identify residents who are likely also beneficiaries of SNAP. 

Amid the crisis, multiple states — including Louisiana, New Mexico and New York — have introduced targeted assistance programs, with some drawing on alternative data sources to send cash directly to residents who rely on SNAP.

In Yeager’s Wednesday statement, he wrote that “other states, some led by Republicans, others led by Democrats, are directly funding SNAP benefits for their citizens. Nevada should do the same.” 

Politicians, advocates hope for SNAP’s return and shutdown’s end

While the state’s major food banks have expressed gratitude for the state’s actions, they have also emphasized that the stopgap measures are an inadequate replacement for a program that has been a staple of hunger relief efforts for decades.

“It isn’t really apples to apples,” Jocelyn Lantrip, FBNN’s executive director, wrote Wednesday to The Indy, citing statistics published by the national nonprofit Feeding America that for every one meal provided by food charity organizations, SNAP covers nine meals. 

Martino described SNAP to The Indy as a “highly efficient” program, allowing families to buy groceries that can last them through the month rather than requiring multiple visits to food pantries. She also highlighted that SNAP boosts economic activity by enabling residents to shop at local stores. 

“What the state is doing with this funding is remarkable and certainly makes great strides for trying to meet that need,” Martino explained. “But I think everyone acknowledges that there is still a gap.”

In public comment during the IFC meeting, Nevada resident Dora Martinez spoke about the difficulties of accessing food banks, saying she relies on public transportation to get around and is concerned about how she can “participate in getting the food and carrying the boxes.”

Food assistance organizations warn that along with imperiling SNAP, the shutdown has increased demand for food from federal workers who are now on their fifth week without pay.

Lombardo on Tuesday said the state’s decision to send money directly to food banks, rather than funding a standalone SNAP program, would cast a wider net of support during a difficult time. 

“Individuals that are government employees within the state of Nevada need assistance,” he explained. “This will enable them to receive assistance.”

Yolanda Kemp, a state employee who helps determine Nevadans’ SNAP eligibility and a member of the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees Local 4041, told The Indy on Thursday that she was scared for the thousands of state residents who will lose their benefits. 

The pause on federal funds for the program “hits the empathy button a little bit differently,” Kemp said. She explained that as an eligibility specialist, she was nervous about being forced to tell people, “Hey, you are eligible. But we can’t give you [SNAP benefits]. You’re not going to receive anything.”

Tabitha Mueller contributed reporting to this article.