The state plans to distribute $100 million in federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding to reduce housing and utility costs to help make up for the temporary loss of federal SNAP benefits for 168,947 residents that begins on Saturday.

Two state senators on Tuesday were clearly disappointed that the state is not doing more to help SNAP recipients — 86,229 island households including 62,647 children — who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to put food on their tables after the Trump administration announced that it was suspending automatic SNAP funding on Saturday because of the ongoing federal government shutdown.

Sen. Joy A. San Buenaventura (D, Puna) chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which held an informational briefing at the state Capitol Tuesday over Hawaii’s response to the food program’s suspension.

She was joined by Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole (D, Kaneohe-Kailua) in voicing her frustration that Gov. Josh Green does not plan to tap the state’s $1.5 billion rainy day fund to cover the nearly
$59 million in monthly SNAP benefits that people will not receive beginning Saturday.

With over 10% of Hawaii residents about to lose their SNAP funding, Buenaventura said, “We’re talking about feeding people. Why couldn’t we use rainy day funds?”

Scott Morishige, the administrator of the state Department of Human Services’ Benefit, Employment and Support Services Division, told the senators that “TANF funds were the fastest resource we could get out there.”

Green continues to search for ways to help SNAP recipients quickly and will announce the release of the TANF funds today, Morishige said.

Pressed on why Green doesn’t use the state’s rainy day fund to replace SNAP funding, DHS’ Deputy Director Jerry Campos said that the Legislature would have to schedule a special session to provide “legislative oversight” of any rainy day funding.

“Gov. Green is fully aware of the issues at hand,” Campos said. “… The necessity to move quickly is one of
the highest priorities. … Gov. Green is considering all possible solutions.”

Buenaventura later closed the briefing by saying she was disappointed “that’s all there is. … We were hoping for better solutions than what we’ve heard right now.”

The state House Committee on Human Services and Homelessness has scheduled a similar hearing today that also includes Morishige.

The suspension of SNAP benefits comes as the federal government shutdown — which began Oct. 1 — approaches the record 35-day federal government shutdown that occurred during President Donald Trump’s first term over Democrats’ refusal to fund Trump’s
border wall with Mexico.

The last shutdown stretched from November 2018 into January 2019.

Federal employees who are now working without pay are already lining up at island food banks as their rent and mortgages are days away from coming due.

Many of them are “folks who never had to seek help before,” Elia Herman, director of advocacy for the Hawaii Foodbank, told the senators. “… In Hawaii we come together and we will figure a way through this.”

On Monday, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs met in an emergency session and approved $6.1 million in emergency funding for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries affected by the shutdown
and the suspension of SNAP benefits.

“These are unsettling times, and our beneficiaries are feeling it most,” OHA Board Chair Kai Kahele said in a statement announcing the emergency funding. “Families are missing paychecks, losing benefits, and facing impossible choices about how to feed their ʻohana. OHA will not wait on the sidelines — we are taking immediate action to help our people through this
crisis.”

OHA Interim Administrator Summer Sylva said in a statement, “Together, we will develop a program that models Native Hawaiian governance and leadership at its best — collective, courageous, and compassionate. In this time of uncertainty, OHA is stepping forward to take care of our people, because that’s exactly what this trust was created to do.”

OHA estimates that more than 47,000 Native Hawaiians receive SNAP benefits and that just under 5,000 Native Hawaiians are also affected by the shutdown.

On Tuesday, state Attorney General Anne Lopez announced that Hawaii has joined a hui of 22 other attorneys general and three governors in seeking a temporary restraining order preventing the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins from “unlawfully” suspending SNAP benefits that feed 40 million Americans, including island residents “who rely on this lifeline every day,” Lopez said in a statement.

“Our office is committed to protecting the rights of families and individuals who depend on this program,” she said.

Lopez agreed with House Democrats who have written to Rollins urging him to release over $5 billion in SNAP contingency funds that Congress previously approved.

Lopez said that “USDA has funded other programs with emergency funds during this shutdown, but has refused to fund SNAP, leaving millions of Americans without the assistance they need to buy food. … This lapse will also put unnecessary strain on state and local governments and community organizations, as families increasingly rely on emergency services and local food pantries that are already struggling to fill a growing nutrition gap. It will affect our school systems and college and university communities, where food insecurity will stand in the way of educating our students. Suspending SNAP benefits will also harm the hundreds of thousands of grocers and merchants that accept SNAP payment for food purchases across the country. USDA has estimated that in a slowing economy, every $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.54 in economic activity.”

“Where Congress has clearly spoken, providing that SNAP benefits should continue even during a government shutdown, USDA does not have the authority to say otherwise,” Lopez said.

The Hawaii Foodbank, Hawaii’s largest “hunger relief organization,” on Tuesday called the Trump administration’s suspension of SNAP benefits “one of the most significant food insecurity crises in recent history.”

Now, with unpaid and idled federal workers waiting in line at food banks, “it’s going to be pretty severe,” Marielle Terbio, vice president of strategy and programs for the Hawaii Foodbank, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday. “It’s not something our food bank alone can respond to. It’s a pretty scary situation.

“This is not a natural disaster,” Terbio said. “It’s a disaster by choice. It’s inhumane.”

Most Hawaii SNAP recipients likely already spent their October allotment of federal SNAP funding, she said.

Now, as November approaches with no expectation of another month of SNAP benefits, adults are likely going hungry “to make sure their keiki eat first,” Terbio said.

The suspension of SNAP benefits also means that
$13 million will not be spent at grocery stores across
the state, Keohokalole said Tuesday, adding to Hawaii’s already sluggish economy.

“Those SNAP dollars aren’t going back into our local economy,” Keohokalole said.

“This whole thing is very disappointing,” he said. “It doesn’t look like there’s a resolution on the horizon.”

Herman, from the Hawaii Foodbank, told Keohokalole and Buenaventura that the loss of SNAP benefits exceeds the food bank’s
abilities.

“That’s an impossible gap for us to close on our own,” she said. “This is really, really, really, really serious and we’re doing it with less resources. … Then we layer on the federal shutdown. … It’s big.”