Liz Canada
You're listening to New Hampshire Has Issues and I am your host, Liz Canada, joining you all by myself today because the topic that I wanted to cover in what I'm just gonna call a mini-sode. The topic has folks who are working around the clock on this issue. asking them to hop on a podcast for an hour is not possible right now, but soon we'll be able to have them on. What's happening right now is you have probably heard

It's the funding for SNAP Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This is what folks used to call food stamps. It is funding for individuals to be able to assist them to buy food.

To be able to qualify SNAP benefits, a household of two, for example, maybe a mom and her kiddo, would need to make less than about

Income for the year under $29,000.

I won't even ask you to think about what that means because for many of us we aren't able to because the income that we have puts us in a position where we're okay.

But right now, there are about 76,000 Granite Staters who rely on SNAP benefits. They look to that to be able to buy food for themselves and their family to eat.

much money are we talking about that they actually get? On average, SNAP participants receive about $187 per month That's the equivalent, I'll math it one more time for you, $6.16 per day.

So, it's not a lot of money that folks are receiving to be able to buy food.

Why are the SNAP benefits not happening right now? Or at least in the way that they were. Well, our federal government is shut down. Spoiler alert. It's been shut down for a while now. It's been shut down almost for the longest it's ever been in history.

The reason it is shut down is because the bill to keep the federal government running, Republicans in DC will say it's a clean bill. Part of this quote unquote clean bill.

is a significant increase in health insurance costs for many people. Now, when I say an increase in health insurance costs, I don't mean that they're getting fancy health insurance suddenly, that everything that they want is covered or that they can see any doctor they'd like in the United States. What I mean is health insurance costs are going to skyrocket for the exact same health insurance they have right now. For some people, that would mean hundreds of dollars a month more.

than what they pay right now. So listener, pause with me, not the podcast, don't hit pause. Mentally, emotionally, pause with me and think about what would it be for you to keep the health insurance you have right now, assuming you have health insurance, I don't know if you do, but assuming you have health insurance, imagine if you suddenly had to pay more a month. What would it be like for you? How easy would that be for you?

Again, not to have super fancy health insurance suddenly, but to have exactly what you have right now. $500 more.

Molly and I do fine in our jobs. And an added cost of $500 a month would very much be felt in our household. And that change isn't impacting us. It's impacting folks who maybe don't feel as okay on a day-to-day basis as we do.

federal government is shut Health insurance costs would the bill to fund the government passes as it is. Our two US senators, Senators Shaheen and Hassan, have are not voting in support of the bill because of these health insurance costs going up so high for so many people. one individual who I've seen online they have a screenshot.

Here's my health insurance cost now, here's what it would be. And the increase is over $1,000 a month.

the government is shut down and the funding for SNAP stopped November 1st. A federal judge on Friday, October 31st said, hey, federal government, you actually do need to send money to the states for their SNAP benefits. And all weekend it was sort of like, is anything going to happen? Are they sending money or no?

Tonight, as I'm recording this on November 3rd, at night I'm seeing little pop-ups saying there's going to be some money coming from the federal government. Okay. But it's not everything. It doesn't cover it. Last week, in positive news here in New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services put together an emergency contingency plan if the money were to stop for SNAP benefits. And Governor Ayotte supported it.

Department of Health and Human Services requested an emergency meeting with the fiscal committee, which we haven't talked about here, but it is a committee of lawmakers from the House and Senate and has both Republicans and Democrats on it. so DHHS, Department of Health and Human Services, went to fiscal committee and said, this is an emergency. We need to be able to have this emergency contract. It is not covering the full cost of what we are going to lose starting November 1st, but it is something. And there were some lawmakers.

on the fiscal committee who said, if we agree to this contract, the federal government's gonna pay us back, right? Because, you know, New Hampshire has ⁓ some issues when it comes to money, we'll say. But regardless, the fiscal committee approved it unanimously. It then went to the executive council the next day. Shout out to the Kayla Montgomery episode about the executive council, very fascinating body, five people.

They had to approve it and they did unanimously. So that plan was approved, moved forward, that's great. And it was a contract to fund the New Hampshire Food Bank to be able to have more, I believe more mobile food banks, to get food out into communities essentially, to get more folks being able to have food resources who would lose that without their SNAP benefits. But it wasn't everything. It does not cover the full cost that is being lost by this federal government shutdown.

But here's the thing.

Even though it is so clear with everybody paying attention now that SNAP benefits are critical for people to be able to eat. And in New Hampshire, about 76,000 people receive SNAP benefits, the majority of them being children. So funding SNAP benefits is absolutely critical. And yet in this last week,

I have seen some leaders in New Hampshire criticize the program and criticize the people who receive SNAP benefits, very much punching down on those individuals. There is at least one bill filed in the state house coming in January that would further restrict what individuals who receive SNAP benefits can spend their money on. Just a quick note that you can't just use your SNAP benefits for anything.

and this bill would make it more restrictive than it already is. flashback moment, just as a quick reminder, we're talking about $6.16 on average per day to be able to pay for food. And we have state lawmakers who want to be even more restrictive than that in terms of what they can spend their money on.

Last week I had Niko Papakonstantis, chair of the select board here in Exeter, on, and his episode he ended it with talking about how important it is for him to lead with empathy.

When these lawmakers punch down on these individuals who receive SNAP benefits, or criticize the program, or criticize people who get any funding from programs like this, that is not empathy. That is the opposite. That is unacceptable.

So even when the federal government reopens, even when there's funding flowing back to the states for SNAP benefits and other programs,

It is our responsibility to remember those 76,000 Granite Staters and everybody else who's impacted by decisions that lawmakers make on a daily basis, both in their votes and in how they talk about people, real people here in our state. If you're looking for ways to be helpful and supportive, I have some links in the show notes and

That could be financial contributions to organizations. It could be if you have a community fridge like we do in It's a 24-7, leave what you can, take what you need, no questions asked situation. Maybe you bring some food over to a community fridge. Maybe it is donating an organization seeing what they're asking for and helping provide that.

I'll end on this. One of the lawmakers in the fiscal committee last week said, you know, if everybody just opened their pockets, we're such a giving state, if we just open their pockets, this will be okay. That's not how you fund a government. It's not how you run a state or a government. We're not doing it through crowdfunding or passing a hat around or GoFundMe's.

It is the responsibility of the government to take care of its people take care of the And that's not through donations. Donations are nice, but that's not how you keep a state running. So again, even after the money comes back from the federal government for this program and others potentially, let's remember that makes the decisions in the state impacts those 76,000 Granite staters and everyone else. Thank you for listening. Full episode next week.