Janet Mills releases $1M to food programs ahead of SNAP cut-off

By Ethan Andrews, Bangor Daily News Staff

The Good Shepherd Food Bank and other food assistance programs will get a $1.25 million boost days before the expected end of federal funding for food stamp benefits.

The contribution includes $1 million from the governor’s contingency fund and $250,000 from the John T. Gorman Foundation.

The infusion amounts to a little more than one day’s worth of the federal benefits that Mainers now receive from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which the USDA will stop funding on Saturday if the federal shutdown continues.

Good Shepherd, a state’s largest food assistance organization, will receive $650,000 in governor’s contingency funds along with the John. T. Gorman Foundation funding.

Another $600,000 from the governor’s fund will go to AgeWise Maine, the state association for Maine’s five Area Agencies on Aging.

Additionally, Mills directed the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to commit $10,000 to enhance the Hunters for the Hungry program, which pays for processing of donated game animals.

In a statement on Oct. 29, Mills said she is “continuing to evaluate all options and push for solutions in Washington.”

Mills told reporters after a housing event in Brunswick that she is talking to top lawmakers and other members of the Legislature about “any possible alternatives” to the cuts without getting into specifics. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture notified states last week that payments under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program won’t be issued in November. Food pantries across the country are bracing for massive need to bridge the gap for a program that sends roughly $29 million per month to Maine, serving 170,000 people with average monthly benefits at $572 per family.

Nearly 75 percent of Maine’s SNAP households have at least one working adult, over half include a person with a disability, 43 percent include an older adult, and over one-third include children, according to the governor’s office.