Montgomery County officials are hoping to cushion the blow for the tens of thousands in the county at risk of imminently losing their federal nutrition assistance benefits.

“Hopefully we can avoid families going to the grocery store with their SNAP [Electronic Benefit Transfer] card and finding at checkout that they don’t have the dollars that they thought were gonna be there,” said Heather Bois Bruskin, director of the county’s Office of Food Systems Resilience.

State officials have warned that federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will run out Nov. 1. While county government cannot backfill lost federal funding, there is an emerging debate at the state level about finding a way to temporarily plug the hole.

County Council members on Tuesday are expected to propose a $7.75 million addition to the county budget that will, at least in part, be used to infuse a network of local nonprofit food assistance groups with cash. The council will hold a public hearing and vote on the proposal on Nov. 18.

There were nearly 70,000 people in Montgomery County, the state’s largest county, relying on the program in March, according to the Montgomery County Food Council. Statewide, 680,000 people, 40% of whom are children, count on SNAP.

Officials say these numbers have almost certainly grown, in part because of the federal shutdown.

People who can’t afford groceries in Montgomery County rely on a network of organizations providing food assistance, including traditional brick-and-mortar pantries and delivery services that provide meals to meet recipients’ particular dietary needs.

County leaders hope the cash infusion will allow these groups to handle a spike in demand during the shutdown and the looming cutoff of funds for SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps.

Expanded services

For Manna Food Center, the expected cash from the county is “still not enough, but it’s a lot,” said CEO Craig Rice.

“It’ll probably help us to get through the beginning of some of the SNAP changes,” he said in advance of Tuesday’s announcement.

Rice said that additional funding and a partnership with Mobilize Montgomery will help Manna provide food assistance to people at the county’s federal workforce career center beginning on Nov. 7.

The county dollars will help pay for Manna staff to supply food at a truck parked at the career center.

There is limited parking at the career center, in Wheaton, but Rice said there will be spaces set aside for those who drive there looking for food. Staff will also help people in cars sign up for unemployment insurance and other services.

Could officials do more?

SNAP is federally funded and administered by states. Counties can direct people to the program, but they have neither the resources nor the legal authority to pay for it.

At the state level, Gov. Wes Moore has said that he won’t use state funds to bolster the benefits program. He laid the blame on the Trump administration, which has declined to commit to reimbursing the money after the shutdown ends.

Some lawmakers want the state to do more.

Del. Emily Shetty, a Montgomery County Democrat, said appropriators in the House of Delegates have called a virtual hearing Wednesday in which they’ll meet with analysts and Moore administration officials to discuss options the state may have to make up for the federal shortfall.

Shetty, who chairs a subcommittee on health care spending, said delegates will approach the meeting “with an eye towards potentially, even temporarily, expanding those benefits and paying for them from existing state dollars.” They’re looking in particular at the state’s rainy day fund as a potential revenue source.

In Montgomery County, Bruskin worries about local economic harm.

Farmers and grocers rely on people making regular SNAP payments, and locally owned grocers in communities with high proportions of SNAP recipients could be hit especially hard. Chain stores, meanwhile, are better positioned to offset the losses.

Bruskin is anticipating that there will be increasingly long lines at food pantries throughout the county in the coming weeks. She said her office and others are planning to stretch the money they have “as far as we can.”

To handle an influx of demand, organizations must have the resources they need, Bruskin said. And local officials may have to expand their outreach.

“It’s hard, especially for federal workers who are furloughed and maybe have never sought food assistance before, to know where to go,” she said.

A previous version of this story had the wrong date for the County Council's hearing on the $7.75 million addition to the budget. It will take place on Nov. 18, the same day as the vote.