More than 66,000 Alaskans are set to lose access to federally backed food aid this weekend as the Trump administration refuses to use contingency funds amid the federal shutdown.
The looming lapse in benefits, which amount to roughly $10 per day per person, comes at a particularly difficult time for the state, which is still recovering from Typhoon Halong, which displaced more than 1,000 rural Alaskans, and has seen baseline hunger rates climb over the last year amid rising costs.
Resources are already stretched thin, Rachael Miller, Chief of Advocacy at Food Bank of Alaska, told The Alaska Current this week. There are concerns that halting SNAP benefits will compound the pain for Alaskans. The Food Bank of Alaska works with more than 150 partner groups to distribute food throughout Alaska, and she said many were reporting steep increases in need well before the government shutdown.
“There’s a lot of anxiety and uncertainty,” she said. “And I think there has been a lot of confusion and chaos in the media for several months, and all of that is compounding right now. One network member shared with us, they’ve seen around a 300% increase in traffic.”
She also said that many are reporting that they’re serving new faces and new families seeking help, rather than just the same people visiting more frequently. And while there’s been an outpouring of support and volunteers recently, particularly in the wake of Typhoon Halong, she stressed that the state’s food bank system can’t come close to replacing the roughly $25 million that flows through Alaska’s SNAP program.
“It all can come together to create a pretty bleak picture for some folks,” she said. “The food bank is working hard across the state to do what we can, but this is creating a need that anti-hunger networks are not going to be able to meet.”
SNAP is one of the single most cost-effective ways to feed people, she said.
Miller said that, according to the latest Map the Meal Gap survey conducted by Feeding America, food insecurity in Alaska has risen over the past year, increasing from one in eight Alaskans to one in seven. She said that also translates to about one in five kids facing food insecurity. The effects of hunger can also be far-reaching, she warned, impacting everything from health and the number of emergency room visits a community sees to classroom learning.
“What we know is that when food insecurity goes up, we see emergency use go up. Hunger is a compounding factor for a lot of medical issues, so being hungry could be the thing that pushes someone over the edge to have to go seek emergency services.”
While Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has been reluctant to commit state resources to covering the gap — something that’s not particularly surprising given that his administration has routinely underfunded the benefits offices, resulting in painfully long backlogs — Alaska legislators have been more proactive. This week, legislative leadership said they could be open to a special session to secure additional funding for the program.
“The SNAP situation is code red and we need to do everything possible to make sure that these benefits continue on in some form or fashion, assuming that the shutdown is going to be further prolonged,” said House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent, told the Anchorage Daily News. “We can’t let people go hungry, and so many Alaskans — nearly 70,000 — depend on this as a prominent way of putting food on their table. We have to look at it in that light.”
Jody Morris, a SNAP eligibility worker with the state, said in a release by the Alaska State Employees Association that the lapse in benefits will stress an already overworked system. She noted that she already works 15 to 20 hours of overtime each week to keep up with a massive backlog of cases, and predicted devastation if Alaskans are forced to go without during November.
“We’re going to have a whole lobby full of people wondering where their food stamps are,” says Morris. “November is the month people really need [food stamps] for Thanksgiving. Food banks are going to be overwhelmed. Churches are going to be overwhelmed. It could cause depression. It could cause suicide. It could cause an uproar. People are going to get desperate.”
Still, the situation is ever-evolving.
On Friday, a judge ordered the Trump administration to consider using roughly $6 billion in contingency funds to partially replace the $8 billion that were set to go out in November. The order, the result of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of Democratic states (Alaska not included), gives the administration until Monday to submit a plan.
Miller said that amid all the tumult, it’s important to remember that SNAP isn’t going away. She said there’s concern that the negative messaging around the program’s future is discouraging people from applying altogether. She stressed that SNAP is still accepting applications, and benefits will resume.
“We’re really worried about decreased application rates. So the food bank’s message is, if you think you’re eligible for SNAP, apply, get in the system, because when the government opens back up, they’ll be able to process those applications,” she said.
In the meantime, she suggested that people with the means should consider contacting their local food bank or pantry to volunteer or donate. She also suggested that people consider doing food drives, noting that in times like these, it’s important to watch out for one another.
“We are really heartened by the community showing up,” she said, “But I hope we can all weather this together, and I hope we all take care of each other.”
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
