The Philadelphia City Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services held a hearing “to examine the impacts of the current crisis threatening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) on food and nutrition security in Philadelphia, including barriers to accessing benefits, disruptions to nutrition education and outreach, consequences for residents, and opportunities for coordinated City and community response.”
At the time of this writing, there is still uncertainty regarding the status of SNAP benefits. A federal court directed the Trump Administration to pay at least partial benefits; however, the Administration has given mixed-signals on their actual intentions, with Trump himself saying benefits would not go out until the government shutdown ended.
For their parts, both the city and the commonwealth have attempted to respond to the crisis. At the state level, Governor Josh Shapiro has made $5 million in emergency funding available to Pennsylvania food banks; and locally, the Parker Administration has launched the “One Philly (SNAP) Support Plan, which aims to provide a combined $14 million in aid from different sources…