Marin SNAP aid trickles out, but status of donations murky

So far, little of the more than $1.3 million in aid promised for Marin residents reliant on federal food stamps has been distributed.

“The money raised for SNAP recipients has not yet gone out,” Lisa Warhuus, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email Monday.

She declined to be interviewed, but appeared to indicate the aid is no longer urgently needed.

“Full CalFresh benefits were reloaded late last week and over the weekend,” she said. “This morning we could see in our system that those who typically receive their benefits on the 10th of the month had received them.”

Some 15,500 people in Marin County depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as CalFresh or food stamps, for some or all of their sustenance. The program provides qualified applicants with a card that can be used like a debit card in participating grocery stores and farmers markets.

Normally, funds are loaded on the cards at the beginning of each month, but that didn’t happen at the beginning of November due to the federal government shutdown.

The Marin Community Foundation announced late last month it was soliciting donations to fill the gap left by the blocked SNAP funds and would contribute $500,000 from the Buck Trust. Last week, Marin County supervisors authorized contributing up to $200,000 per week to the effort.

At the time, County Executive Derek Johnson said the county was considering issuing gift cards to SNAP recipients as one means of delivering the aid, but was also considering other “platforms.” According to a staff report, the county was to “execute a limited data sharing agreement with GiveCard to support verification, activation, and reporting processes in a secure and compliant manner.”

San Francisco began sending out letters to SNAP recipients last week with instructions on how to receive a city-funded grocery card, and Contra Costa County announced that SNAP recipients would be able to pick up a debit card starting Nov. 10.

In response to a suit brought by California and other states, Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration Thursday to restore full funding for SNAP benefits.

Soon after the ruling, a number of states began distributing the funds to SNAP recipients. In a statement that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote, “California families are beginning to see their full SNAP benefits restored on their EBT cards.”

The Justice Department appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which issued an administrative stay on Friday temporarily pausing the lower court’s ruling. In a memo issued the next day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened financial penalties for states that issued full monthly SNAP benefits for November if they failed to “undo” the payments.

On Monday, an appeals court refused to block the lower court ruling, but the Trump administration said it would return to the Supreme Court in a bid to halt the full federal funding. At the same time, it appeared on Monday that the government closure might be nearing resolution, as a group of Senate Democrats agreed to support a funding bill.

“Needless to say, planning for disbursements while there are evolving court orders has been anything but predictable and frankly unnerving for those that rely on these benefits,” Johnson said.

In an email late Monday, Vikki Garrod, a spokesperson for the Marin Community Foundation, wrote that the foundation has received $1 million in donations to its SNAP fundraising drive, adding to its $500,000 contribution from the Buck Trust.

Garrod said the foundation has so far used just $100,000 of that money: $50,000 going to ExtraFood to increase meal/grocery distribution and $50,000 to the Agricultural Institute of Marin to subsidize food purchases and fresh food distribution at Rollin Root stops, farmers markets and pantries.

Garrod said that while the immediate emergency has been addressed, “There is a very real concern that the situation could arise again next month, or early next year when the current short-term government funding measure expires.”

“We have assured all of those who contributed to the fund that we will continue to deploy their contributions for the purpose that they contributed to the fund: to ensure our neighbors have continued access to the food they need and deserve,” she said.

According to an update posted on the foundation’s website after the Thursday court ruling, the foundation is planning “to form a partnership with an intermediary entity that can deploy direct cash-like assistance to impacted residents.”