On Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, the California Valley Miwok Tribe held its monthly USDA Food Distribution.
Food recipients are very concerned about next months’ food distribution. Not knowing if the government shutdown is going to continue. The government shutdown is causing many recipients, whom participate in the USDA FDPIR Food Program, to worry about how they are going to get food on their table next month, especially if the USDA Food Distribution program is stopped due to the government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture made available its contingency plan, outlining the impact of a government shutdown on the federal nutrition programs, USDA says, “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will continue operations and eligible households will still receive monthly benefits for October, No additional federal funds, however, would be available to support the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)’s clinical services, food benefits and administrative costs, States may have some funds available to continue operations for a week or so, but states would likely be unable to sustain operations for a longer period. Contingency funds will be available to help states – but even this funding would not fully mitigate a shortfall for the entire month of October; The Child Nutrition (CN) Programs, including School Lunch, School Breakfast, Child and Adult Care Feeding, Summer Food Service and Special Milk will continue operations into October; No additional federal funds would be available to support the Commodity Assistance Programs (CAP) including the Commodity Supplemental Food Programs (CSFP); The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) administrative funding l and the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP).”
If the government shutdown continues, no new funds will be available to support the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).
CVMT sincerely thanks the Tule River Reservation (USDA Food Program, Mr. Richard McDarment, USDA FDIR Director, Mrs. Patricia Salas, USDA FDIR Intake Manager, and Mr. Ronald Buckman, USDA FDIR Staff & driver
