Food banks and local officials are preparing for sudden emergency need across Tennessee on Nov. 1. A flurry of grassroots coordination, political pleas and legal news — including two last-minute federal court orders — have created confusion about whether the federal government will supply expected SNAP benefits next month.
In ordinary times, some 690,000 Tennesseans could expect a new round of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits in the opening days of each new month. A gridlocked Congress has instead pushed the ongoing government shutdown into its second month, making USDA-funded SNAP benefits the latest casualty of D.C. partisan negotiations. While federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island issued orders on Friday compelling the USDA to disburse SNAP funds, experts do not know if or when November support will reach Tennessee families.
“This lawsuit allows the USDA to go through the motions of what they do every month to get states their benefits,” says Signe Anderson, senior director of nutrition advocacy at the Tennessee Justice Center. “I wish I could tell you that we’ll see everything proceed normally tomorrow, but we just don’t know that right now. Hopefully we’ll know that by the end of the day.”Â
Others expect, at minimum, a lapse or delay in benefits as the court order works its way through federal and state bureaucracies. While other states like Vermont and Virginia intervened with state resources to guarantee SNAP benefits to their residents, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee confirmed earlier this week that his office would not follow suit. Despite Tennessee’s $2.1 billion “Rainy Day Fund,” Lee said the state did not have an operational mechanism to load benefits for Tennessee SNAP recipients. Lee has spent much of October touring Asia on a business development trip. His office directs food-insecure families to FeedTN, an online resource directory.Â
Without federal money, Gov. Lee says state is unable to backstop SNAP with $2.1 billion Rainy Day Fund
Local officials, including Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, are preparing for the worst. O’Connell appeared at Second Harvest Food Bank on Friday morning to explain the city’s emergency food assistance resources webpage and answer questions from reporters. Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts also addressed reporters. When asked about Lee’s leadership as SNAP prepares to lapse, Pitts emphasized a collective response to the looming disaster.
“ We all share responsibility and the blame," Pitts told reporters. "Everybody does. But when you share responsibility, you have to share a response. Everybody needs to respond, including our state government and federal government. The local governments are clearly doing that.”
State Democrats slammed Lee for the looming hunger crisis, as did state Sen. Paul Bailey (R-Sparta), a fellow GOP member who publicly split with the governor on SNAP this week. Three Tennessee bishops released a statement of support for SNAP benefits on Friday as well.
