<\/a>Jonson Kuhn \/ Juneau Empire \n Southeast Alaska Food Bank’s Chris Schapp marks dented cans of salmon with the word “Pink” before sending them off to other food banks and pantries. Southeast Alaska Food Bank is on track to receive $150,000 as part of an Alaska Department of Health decision to provide $1.68 million to four statewide food banks amid an ongoing backlog of food stamp applications. The funding was among multiple measures announced to address the problem. <\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Statewide scope and solutions<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t At least 8,000 families have been affected by a backlog in processing food stamp applications dating back to September, with many families going for several months without benefits. Security officers have been hired due to hostile actions by residents against state workers, and Food Bank of Alaska Policy And Advocacy Manager Ron Meehan told the Anchorage Daily News “people are literally starving” in rural areas due to the combined lack of benefits and depletion of supplies from food banks in communities that have them.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Meehan, who participated in Monday’s online media event, said some of the bulk food purchases that will be sent statewide have already been made. He acknowledged there will be a gap until supplies reach communities — and people in need — but in some towns “food pantries had food they were rationing, so they’re able to use more of that knowing more food is coming.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Distribution of the bulk purchases will be to communities determined to be most in need, which are largely in rural and western Alaska, he said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The funds were redirected by Gov. Mike Dunleavy from food security programs in the Department of Fish and Game, which can include purposes such as subsistence habitat management. The grant funds are available through a 2021 capital budget appropriation of $6 million to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for Food Security Enhancement Projects. These funds were previously transferred to the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for purchasing shelf-stable food supplies for disaster situations.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The second major immediate remedy was automatically extending eligibility for food stamps — officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — for Alaska residents scheduled to reapply for them in February, March and April. Most recipients are required to reapply every six months, but changing that timeline is among the longer-term measures announced.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Hedberg said a similar rollover was used during the COVID-19 pandemic and, with employees still trying to process applications submitted from November until January, the goal is to not to make the backlog longer.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “We are estimating it’s probably going to take two months uninterrupted time to go through that process,” Hedberg said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Looking ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Beyond the immediate steps, the health department is changing the renewal process to an annual one.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t ”Programming is underway to transition the SNAP certification period from six months to 12 months for all participants with a targeted go-live date July 2023,” a health department statement notes. Also, “the department plans to launch an online SNAP application by the end of the calendar year.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Department officials have also stated for months they are working to hire additional staff, although like many state and private employers they are suffering crucial workforce shortages. The Division of Public Assistance, which operates under the department, states 71 vacant positions have been filled since November and 31 new employees are in training.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “It will take several months for the new staff to be fully trained to support the workflow,” the health department statement notes. “However, because the newly hired staff is trained first to gather information, this support will allow the more experienced eligibility technicians to focus on final determination.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t • Contact reporter Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com. Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at Jonson.Kuhn@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Funds for local food banks, automatic renewals are among the measures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":889,"featured_media":95784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[735],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-95783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-food-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95783"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=95783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}