OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The federal government shutdown at midnight, furloughing employees and putting programs in limbo.
One of the most vulnerable populations is those who rely on nutrition and formula through WIC, which stands for Women, Infants, and Children.
While WIC users have received this month’s payment, a prolonged government shutdown leaves November’s payment in doubt.
Hunger Free Oklahoma says uncertainty can lead families to ration their food and neglect their nutritional needs.
“I mean, that program’s crucial, and we’ve actually seen participation, and it’s starting to tick up,” said Chris Bernard, President and CEO of Hunger Free Oklahoma.
With each passing hour, federal workers and programs across the country are feeling the effects of the government shutdown.
Programs that feed Oklahoma families could be impacted if the shutdown continues.
“So the WIC program is designed for pregnant mothers, mothers of breastfeeding infants, and then children up to 5 are kind of the three categories,” said Bernard.
WIC and SNAP rely on federal funding, and a prolonged shutdown could lead to hard decisions.
“So with WIC in particular, you’d really start to see people either being told they couldn’t, or they didn’t have their benefits coming, or they couldn’t enroll in WIC,” said Bernard.
Bernard says this could lead to a domino effect.
“People are going to be afraid SNAP benefits may not come next month, and so they may not spend in the way they normally do in order to save back what they might need as they lean more on food pantries, which means they’ll see higher demand,” said Bernard.”But what I really would encourage people not to do is start, you know, cutting what they eat and starting to skip meals and things out of fear of these benefits not being here in a month.”
Even in a time of uncertainty, Bernard says there’s still good news.
“The good news is you don’t have to be worried today, right? Like, your benefits are there. If you’re on SNAP, your benefits for October are good,” said Bernard. “I think there’s going to be a lot of pressure to solve this problem, and we hope to see it resolved quickly.”
News 4 reached out to the State Department of Health to discuss what the impact could be if the shutdown continues, but they were not available.
In a statement to News 4, the department says:
We do not anticipate our WIC program to be impacted immediately by the federal government shutdown. However, the OSDH is looking at the potential impacts if the shutdown were to last longer than a few weeks. We are committed to keeping WIC participants informed and will provide updates as needed.
Oklahoma State Department of Health
There is also a program called Double Up Oklahoma, which allows you to stretch your SNAP dollars.
