Escambia County and Santa Rosa County public schools are stepping up to make sure their students don’t go hungry.
With Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits not being issued after Friday, the school districts are expanding backpack programs that provide shelf stable food to students and their families over the weekends and school breaks.
More commonly known as food stamps, SNAP is a federal program that provides low-income families monthly benefits to buy healthy food. On Oct. 27, the USDA—which oversees the program—posted on its website that no benefits will be issued on Nov. 1 due to the ongoing government shutdown…