Chilkat Valley residents are among the more than 66,000 Alaskans who could lose their federal food assistance benefits in November due to the ongoing federal shutdown.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has directed states to stop the issuance of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the month of November due to insufficient federal funds,” announced Alaska’s Department of Health on Monday.
It’s not clear exactly how many local residents stand to be impacted, but federal data shows about 3.2 percent of borough residents get SNAP assistance. Olerud’s manager Tyler Swinton said SNAP sales accounted for about 1.1 percent of the store’s total sales since Jan. 1 this year.
Both Swinton and Howser’s IGA manager Kevin Shove said they weren’t sure how many people in the community use it but they definitely see a bump in grocery sales at the first of the month.
“I think people are definitely reliant on it,” Swinton said. “One percent is not much, but it’s something.”
Alaskans get more than $20 million a month in federal funds from the program. The SNAP program is federally funded, but administered in Alaska by the Division of Public Assistance.
States can provide the money to continue benefits to SNAP recipients, but there is no guarantee they’ll be reimbursed, according to the division.
The state has also determined it is not mechanically possible to use state funds to continue providing benefits if federal funds are not available, according to Monday’s announcement.
The agency further explained that SNAP benefits are distributed directly from a federal account to recipients’ cards and “reprogramming the federal system to instead draw funds from the state treasury is not feasible due to vendor and system time constraints.”
The federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1 appears to have no end in sight. President Donald Trump has said he intends to use the shutdown to terminate “Democrat” programs and employees working for them, and Republicans with majorities in both chambers of Congress are largely supportive of the president’s agenda. Democrats are seeking an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire in January as their primary demand for ending the shutdown.
Among Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich are echoing the GOP’s leadership position of blaming the shutdown on Democrats. Republicans can end the shutdown on their own, but it would require the politically fraught move of abandoning the 60-vote filibuster. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who at times has been at odds with the Trump administration, on Saturday criticized that tactic and called for congressional unity to end the shutdown.
The state health department on Monday indicated it is monitoring further possible federal action on SNAP benefits as well.
“[The division of public assistance] … anticipates additional direction from the federal government in the coming days,” the statement notes.
That office plans to continue processing applications and renewals as well. “In addition, [the division]will maintain call center operations and client communication to ensure households can complete interviews, submit documents, and receive updates.”
The state has been struggling with an ongoing backlog of thousands of SNAP applicants since 2022 — with about half of applications processed on time as of July 1 — plus the highest error rate for payment of benefits by far in the U.S. The backlog has resulted in lawsuits, and the federal government fined Alaska nearly $12 million last year and $4.6 million this year for the error rates.
Back in Haines where he was busy stocking shelves at IGA on Wednesday morning, Shove said he thinks the shutdown will be resolved before November when the benefits lapse. And, if it isn’t, he believes Haines will take care of its own.
“I think Haines will help people. There’s the Salvation Army. The [tribal] food boxes,” he said. “If it came to that point, we would do donation boxes here.”
Editor’s note: This story was originally published by our colleagues at the Juneau Independent as part of the Alaska News Coalition’s story exchange. Local reporting was added by the Chilkat Valley News.