Families on SNAP worry about not just feeding themselves but also their pets
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sarah Lungwitz has fretted over feeding not just her two teenage daughters with SNAP payments disrupted, but her family’s cat and two dogs.
Help has arrived for now, she says, after an Illinois nonprofit arranged for volunteers to give her a grocery gift card last week to buy food for herself and her pets. It’s among the growing efforts to help struggling pet owners stretch their dollars as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments go out late during a government shutdown that is the longest on record.
“I don’t even make enough money for all my bills let alone groceries,” said Lungwitz, a 46-year-old auto parts store worker who has worried she might have to surrender her cat, Bambi, and two dogs, Spike and Chloe.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order to fully fund SNAP food aid payments amid the government shutdown, even though residents in more than a half-dozen states already received the funds. The uncertainty is placing a strain on shelters.
Although SNAP can’t be used for pet food, the food assistance program helps low-income families free up money to purchase kibble. It’s also common for owners to supplement or entirely feed their animals human food that was purchased using SNAP, said Stephanie Hicks, executive director for Care for Pets, the Rockford, Illinois, nonprofit that helped Lungwitz and others. Some volunteers walked the grocery aisles with struggling pet owners.
The insanity continues here.
