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Eagle River (USA), April 24 (AP) — Thousands of Alaskans who depend on government assistance have waited months for food stamp benefits, adding to a long-running hunger crisis that has been ravaged by the pandemic. Fish and fishing equipment are deteriorating due to epidemics, inflation and remnants of typhoons that destroy stocks.
The backlog, which began last August, is particularly worrisome in a state where remote communities, including Alaska Native villages, are typically not connected by road. They have to ship food by barge or plane, making even basic commodities cost-prohibitive.
About 13 percent of the state’s roughly 735,000 residents received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP) in July, before the troubles started.
“People are struggling and having to choose whether to get food or heating fuel,” said Daisy Lockwood Katcheak, the city administrator of Stebbins, an Alaska Native village more than 400 miles (644 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage. 634 people.
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Facing food shortages and rampant inflation, the city recently used $38,000 raised for the Children’s Spring Carnival to buy basic necessities for residents. Communities on Alaska’s west coast were also affected by the remnants of the typhoon, which destroyed vital stocks of fish and fishing boats, while problems with the food stamp program arose.
“My people are suffering firsthand,” Katcheak said.
Alaska lawmakers have responded to the state’s belated response to lawsuits alleging failures in the state’s administration of food stamps and a program that provides assistance to low-income Alaskans who are blind, elderly or disabled.
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy authorized $1.7 million to provide relief to communities in the state nearly two and a half times the size of Texas. With food banks reporting the highest demand they’ve ever seen, lawmakers approved emergency funding to hire staff to handle the flood of cases.
“We know a lot of people don’t eat more than one meal a day; they may only eat one,” said Anthony Reinert, program director for the Alaska Food Bank. “Alaska has always had a hunger bottom line. But in the past six months, its spread and expansion has been remarkable.”
Alaska’s hunger crisis arose from a perfect storm of cascading events, compounded by staffing and technical problems at the state health department.
The regular renewal process for SNAP benefits — a federal program administered by the states — has been suspended during the pandemic. The problems arose after the state ended its public health emergency last July and reintroduced SNAP’s recertification requirements, leading to a deluge of applications.
Heidi Hedberg, who was named health commissioner late last year, said the 2021 cyberattack on the state health department has complicated Alaska’s ability to process applications.
Employees who were supposed to upgrade key departmental computer systems were evacuated in response to the attack, leaving the upgrade incomplete. But Hedberg said the 100 jobs that would be eliminated were still cut due to expected efficiencies from the upgrade.
The backlog of applicants seeking to renew food assistance benefits reached a high of 9,104 in January. Officials hope to clear the backlog of recertification applications this month and turn their attention to the thousands of new applications, according to the department.
“That’s not how the SNAP system is supposed to work, period,” said Nick Feronti, an attorney representing Alaskans who are suing over the delays and other issues with the food stamp program.
Stephanie Duboc is still waiting for help after submitting her application in December. She volunteers at the Chugiak-Eagle River Food Pantry in suburban Anchorage and says the food she receives from the pantry is essential.
“Without this help, it would have had a huge financial impact on my family,” she said.
One of the plaintiffs, Rose Carney, 68, received $172 a month in aid.
Carney said she received a letter in September saying her benefits had been renewed — but a month later, another letter saying her application was due the next day. She said she filled out the form but didn’t start receiving benefits until she contacted a lawyer last month. Meanwhile, she added water to bean soup and visited a church pantry to tide her over.
“I’m really frustrated because that’s like the income I’m living on, even though it’s just food stamps,” Carney said.
Her attorney, Feronti, has 10 clients seeking class-action status, but the case has been stalled as the parties grapple with possible solutions that could force long-term change.
The National Center for Legal and Economic Justice, which is also involved in the case, has filed a similar lawsuit in Missouri, but Saima Akhtar, an attorney for the center, said the situation in Alaska is “very extreme.”
Dunleavy allocated $1.7 million in February to food banks to address urgent needs, including bulk purchases and distribution of cash cards so people in rural communities can buy their own groceries and support local stores.
About $800,000 has been used to buy staples like oatmeal, pasta, beans, canned fruit and shelf-stable cheese more cheaply in Washington state, Reinert of the food bank said. The cargo was then shipped to Alaska for distribution.
These supplies are starting to reach communities most in need, where the cost of groceries to stores is prohibitively high due to the logistics cost of getting them there.
In Bethel, the central community in southwestern Alaska, the Bethel Community Service Foundation feeds about 350 families a month—nearly six times what it was before the pandemic. Carey Atchak, the foundation’s food safety coordinator, said milk costs about $12.50 a gallon in stores, while a 20-pound bag of rice costs $62.49 and a 40-pound bag of discount brand dog food costs $82.49.
It’s cheap compared with Kwethluk in the village of Yup’ik, a 12-mile (19-kilometer) flight from Bethel, where an 18-pack of eggs costs almost $17 and a double-pack of peanut butter costs $25.69.
“When the lower 48 has these problems, they have workarounds, they have neighbors, they have connections, they have the ability to grow their own food. It’s not even an option here,” said Reinart, who uses Alaska is a common term for a neighboring US state.
“So we’re very, very dependent on these systems to keep the lights on and the traffic flowing here.” (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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