Colorado looks to fund food banks as shutdown continues

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(The Center Square) – With just five days left until federal monies for food stamps runs out, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has moved to fund up to $10 million for food pantries in the state.

Polis said he hopes this measure will prevent widespread food insecurity.

“In Colorado, we love everyone and take hunger seriously,” Polis said. “I am so disappointed to see the federal government seems to have no urgency or desire to stop families from going hungry.”

As the federal government shutdown will soon enter its fourth week, concern is growing about programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

Both funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, those programs provide food subsidies, also known as food stamps, to roughly 42 million Americans nationwide.

At the beginning of the shutdown in early October, Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee unanimously approved a request from Polis’ office for the state to fund one month of WIC benefits from its General Fund.

The total expenditure for that was $7.5 million, as previously reported by The Center Square. Those funds will not be reimbursed by the federal government.

Many states across the nation took similar steps, though some did not have the funds to run the program for a whole month. Now, as Nov. 1 nears, Colorado’s funding for WIC will also soon run out.

“Hardworking families shouldn’t be forced to choose between paying for health care, prescription drugs, or food,” said Colorado Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera.

This is the first time the U.S. government has shut down since 2018, and both Republicans and Democrats are passing blame.

“Thousands of Coloradans might not have food on their table because the Agriculture Secretary and the Trump Administration is undermining access to SNAP benefits,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Saturday. “This is wrong.”

Weiser joined 22 other attorneys general in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Friday demanding answers for why the USDA will not use $6 billion in apparent “SNAP contingency reserve funds” to continue funding SNAP.

“USDA must explain what legal authority they have to withhold congressionally mandated funds to the states for food assistance,” Weiser said.

Yet, according to a statement on the USDA’s website, “the well has run dry.”

Monthly, approximately 617,000 Coloradans receive at least $120 million in SNAP benefits. In 2024, almost one million individual Coloradans received SNAP.

Although Republicans control both the U.S. Senate and House, they need seven Democrats in the Senate to meet the 60-vote requirement to pass a budget and end the government shutdown. So far, only three Democrats have agreed to cross the aisle, while others vote against even passing a continuing funding resolution. Without action soon, the federal government shutdown could become the longest in American history.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colorado, said it is time for Democrats to step up and vote.

“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to keep the government closed & twice to block bills that would pay our troops & federal workers,” Evans said on social media. “They’ve made it clear: their power matters more than the American people.”