Nearly 5,000 people in Montezuma County may be facing hunger at the beginning of November.
Four thousand nine hundred and twelve individuals are receiving benefits through SNAP, the federal food-assistance program. according to Kelli Hargraves, director of the county social services program, who spoke to the county commissioners at their workshop Monday about the situation facing SNAP recipients because of the federal government shutdown. That’s about 19 percent of the county’s population.
Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd, who represents Colorado’s Third District, joined the commissioners via Zoom.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a letter to state SNAP agencies on Oct. 10 saying that, unless the shutdown ends, there will be insufficient funds to pay November SNAP benefits for the approximately 42 million Americans that receive them.
“The news is not great,” Hurd told the commissioners. “It sounds like we will not be able to see these dollars flowing through.”
Hargraves said she is meeting weekly with representatives of the county’s food pantries and soup kitchens, trying to assess their capacity food-wise and volunteer-wise.
But she said, “We are concerned that we won’t have what our community needs. We are a food desert in the state of Colorado.”
Hargraves said about 50 percent of the individuals receiving SNAP benefits in the county are children, 15 percent are elderly, and 10 percent are disabled.
“I believe our elderly population will be hit the hardest,” she said.
According to a press release from the state, SNAP provides food for more than 600,000 people in Colorado, and as in Montezuma County, half of them are children.
The county is trying to disseminate information about what is happening and where to find other food resources, “but we continue to have people come in or call that don’t understand,” Hargraves said. “It’s hard for folks.”
Hargraves could not be reached by KSJD for further comment on the impacts to local people.
State officials are trying to counter the loss of SNAP benefits.
Gov. Jared Polis has asked the state legislature to provide $10 million in emergency funds to support food banks and pantries.
On Tuesday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined attorneys general and governors of 25 other states and the District of Columbia in suing the USDA for suspending SNAP and for not using contingency funds to keep it going. New Mexico and Arizona are among those states.
“First authorized in 1964 as the ‘Food Stamp Program,’ the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has long been the country’s primary weapon against hunger and an essential safety net for low-income Americans,” states the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
For Federal Fiscal Year 2024, SNAP benefits averaged about $8.3 billion per month, according to the lawsuit.
It says that in 2025, an average of 612,931 people received SNAP benefits in Colorado each month, including more than 306,000 children and about 114,000 elderly individuals.
More than $1.4 billion in SNAP benefits were issued during 2024 in Colorado.
“With the suspension of SNAP benefits, the nutritional needs of millions of school-aged children in Plaintiff States will not be met,” the lawsuit states. “Hungry children have a harder time paying attention, behaving, and learning in school. States will have to devote additional state resources, including healthcare expenditures and additional educational resources, to address these challenges.
“Adults who have adequate access to nutritious food are also healthier. Low-income adults participating in SNAP incur about $1,400 less in medical care costs in a year than low-income non-participants. When state residents are refused SNAP benefits, these benefits will be lost.
“Food insecurity can also have a significant effect on health and, in turn, healthcare costs.”
The cutoff, the suit says, will also “harm the merchants that accept SNAP benefits for food purchases,” including some 3,200 grocers and other merchants in Colorado.
According to the suit, some $6 billion is available in a SNAP contingency reserve fund, but the government is refusing to use those monies, saying it cannot legally do so.
“USDA’s claim that the SNAP contingency funds cannot be used to fund SNAP benefits during an appropriations lapse is also a dramatic change in USDA’s policy,” the suit says. “Less than a month ago, USDA’s stated policy, in its Lapse of Funding Plan, was that the contingency funds are ‘available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year’.”
In an appearance on CNN on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the SNAP program would cost $9.2 billion in November and the $6 billion isn’t close to what is needed.
Joining Colorado in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kansas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
People who want to help out can donate to local food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens directly, or donations can be made at FeedingColorado.org/donate.
