There is a backlog at the state agency responsible for food assistance. People throughout the state are doing without a program they have come to rely on and service providers in Haines are seeing the effects of the delay.

Many beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or what’s called SNAP have been waiting for months to receive their food stamps. The delay is the result of many things. Recipients have to reapply to the program every six months. During the pandemic the requirement was lifted, but it was reinstated in July. This has led to a huge influx of applications, and the state hasn’t been able to keep up.

Janine Allen is an advocate who works for Southeast Alaska Independent Living. She works with seniors and people with disabilities. She says the backlog is affecting her clients.

Allen: “The state is supposed to respond within thirty days to a food stamp application, and I think around October/November we were starting to feel like something was wrong because people still hadn’t heard back, and you’d try to call the hotline to be able to speak to a human, and get an update on your case, which you used to be able to do, you used to be able to call them and talk to them”

It was getting hard to reach anyone.

Allen: “The message on the phone would say ’You are caller 324, and the estimated wait time is 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 hours, once I heard fifteen hours. It became clear that you weren’t going to be able to speak to a human, and that was kind of concerning.” 

With the Department of Public Assistance not responding, people depending on the program have turned to other resources in Haines. Allen says the Chilkoot Indian Association provides food boxes. There is the ministerial association, the Presbyterian church has a food pantry, 

Allen: “There is actually even a small food pantry on main street, it’s not a lot, but there is little bits of food in there, accessible 24/7.”

Kevin Woods is the commanding officer at the Salvation Army. He says he has seen an increase in demand for its services.

Woods: “We serve quite a few people for a small community like this. The food that we get, some of the food comes from locally here, but some of the food comes from the Alaska food bank, and the amount of food that we get has gone down some, because they are struggling to get food, and so,  it’s kind of a tough situation because the amount of food we that we are getting in has gone down, and the amount of food that goes out has gone up.”

Woods says the Salvation Army has some reserves of food, and he has not had to turn anyone away. He expects the Alaska food bank will increase their deliveries, and that the state’s Department of Public Assistance will eventually deal with its backlog. 

Janine Allen was concerned for the people she works with. 

Allen: “One person I work with in particular has significant disabilities and medical conditions that are really compounded by inadequate nutrition. And it was really unacceptable to me that he wasn’t able to receive the benefits that he really relies upon to feed himself.”

She reached out to government officials. That didn’t get her the results she aimed for. 

That is when she reached out to Alaska Legal Services, a pro bono law firm that serves seniors, people with disabilities, and people with low income. The firm was helpful, and filed a lawsuit with Allen’s help. 

Allen: “Fill out those papers, send it in and we will take that person’s case to the state, and specifically request a fair hearing. And so for that particular individual we finally went that route. Alaska Legal filed the fair hearing request on January 18, on February 1st he was finally approved for September, October, November, December, January, and February, six whole months.”

 Allen says she hopes we take the broad view of the issue, and refrain from judging. 

Allen: “Think about what might happen in your life if you suddenly experienced a significant disability. Suddenly you are trying to live off you social security check and you are trying to rent a place and you are trying to purchase food at the grocery store. You know, we are all in it together, I think it doesn’t benefit Haines to have hungry people.”

The Department of Public Assistance is currently hiring staff to deal with the backlog.