As the federal government shutdown stretches into its second week, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is actively working with local, state and federal partners to understand and navigate the evolving impacts on essential services. Despite the uncertainty, North Carolinians who rely on federal food assistance programs will continue receiving benefits through October.
This includes people who receive food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as Food and Nutrition Services. NCDHHS is awaiting guidance from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for impacts beyond October should the shutdown continue. There are 1.4 million people in North Carolina that rely on SNAP to help put nutritious and healthy food on the table. More than 700,000 households receive benefits each month and 4 in 5 families participating in SNAP in North Carolina have either a child, senior or an adult with a disability.
"Food and nutrition are foundational to good health and people should not have to worry about their families and communities going hungry" said NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai. "NCDHHS hopes for a quick resolution to the federal shutdown to ensure people in North Carolina are not at risk of losing critical food benefits."
This also includes people who receive benefits as part of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. NCDHHS is working diligently to try and mitigate these impacts and is in consistent communication with county and federal partners. WIC currently serves approximately 262,000 women, infants and children who rely on the program for access to nutritious food, breastfeeding support, nutrition education and health care referrals.
"Poor access to nutrition is linked to poor health outcomes for infants and children," said Yvonne Copeland, NCDHHS Director of the Division of Child and Family Wellbeing. "We hope there is progress in passing a federal spending plan to ensure WIC continues to provide crucial support to North Carolina families at a time-critical stage of early childhood development."
For each program potentially impacted by the shutdown, the federal government is deciding which would be “exempt” from a shutdown and giving us guidance on how to proceed. NCDHHS will continue to provide updates as we receive them from the federal government. For more information on SNAP or WIC benefits and impacts from the federal shutdown please visit www.ncdhhs.gov/fns.