Produce is on display at a Juneau market on Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska’s Department of Health is again slipping into a backlog of food stamp applications.
The news comes from state data included in a filing from the Northern Justice Project in its class action lawsuit against the state . The suit asks the court to make sure the state issues food stamp benefits on time after years of chronic delays.
Attorney Nick Feronti represents the class of Alaskans affected by the backlog in the department’s Division of Public Assistance, which manages the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the state.
Thousands of Alaskans waited months for federal food aid last year because the state’s Division of Assistance had accumulated a backlog of crisis proportions . He said the latest filing shows that the crisis is ongoing.
“The data tells me that we, as a state and as a community, are still needing durable solutions to this problem,” he said. “I think that any defendant, big or small, can come up with temporary fixes that make things look better, but I think actually fixing a system is a different matter.”