Connie Griffith

The head of Fredonia’s Fred Basket food pantry plans to lobby the Chautauqua County Legislature on Wednesday for a program to help alleviate any suspensions of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits due to the federal government shutdown.

Connie Griffith reached out to the OBSERVER to explain a program that FeedMore WNY has with Erie County, which she wants Chautauqua County to also adopt. The Chautauqua County Legislature is meeting in a special session Wednesday to determine steps it can take on welfare benefits affected by the government shutdown.

Griffith provided an email from FeedMore’s Shawn Schlifke explaining the program. “The (Erie County) Department of Social Services will provide a client with a voucher when a new SNAP benefit client experiences a delay in receiving their SNAP benefits or if a client has a lost or stolen card,” he wrote. “The client presents the voucher to one of our food pantry partners, which then sends it to FeedMore. Erie County pays a set fee for the food to FeedMore, and then we credit the payment to a grant to the pantry. ”

Schlifke wrote that “Currently, we only have a contract with Erie County.”

That county is “handling the situation on a proactive basis,” Griffith said. “I talked to Charlene (Johnson) at the Chautauqua County (Department of) Social Services and she is very supportive of this type of program.”

Griffith said, “I plan to ask to speak to the legislature to propose that we enter into a contract with FeedMore WNY in a similar manner. I have also talked to Tom Carle, who called for the emergency session and he is supportive of this initiative.”

SNAP may get a reprieve, however. According to the Associated Press, “two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown.”