Alaska residents far from a food pantry are struggling to feed their families, advocates say. State health officials say they’re making headway on applications, but recipients say help can’t come too soon.
Last month, Heidi Hedberg, the state health department’s commissioner-designee, said the departmentto focus solely on food stamps and Medicaid as a way to get the agency back up to speed.
Staff with the Food Bank of Alaska this week, however, said they’re still working with clients whose applications are marked as received in September with no action taken since.“We’re continuing to see significant delays in processing,” said Magen James, the organization’s SNAP coordinator.As the backlog stretches on, Food Bank of Alaska staff describe staffers exhausted after months of dealing with people going hungry around the state with limited access to food resources.
The organization is struggling to keep up with the demand, Food Bank officials say. Even in places on the road system, like Soldotna, residents dealing not only with delayed benefits but inflation say the high price of fuel has made it difficult or impossible to drive into town to visit a food pantry, according to Greg Meyer, with the Food Bank in that community.
The impact of rising food and fuel costs on top of delayed federal benefits has been particularly hard on elders and single parents, said Carey Atchak, food security coordinator for Bethel Community Services Foundation.
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