By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON — It is yet unclear how quickly reduced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will be available for West Virginians, with President Donald Trump contradicting his U.S. Department of Agriculture in whether to comply with a federal court order to partially fund the benefits.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey and West Virginia National Guard Adj. Gen. James Seward provided an update Tuesday on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and food distribution efforts to state and local food banks during an event at the Step by Step Family Support Center on Charleston’s West Side.
National Guard soldiers and airmen also dropped off non-perishable food across the street at the West Side Family Resource Center.
“I’ve said at the very beginning that we are not going to let West Virginians go hungry,” Morrisey said. “Let everyone else politic and do their nonsense, but we’re always going to be out in front of this…We’re going to do things the right way, and we have good partnerships, and we look out for West Virginians. Period.”
On Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use nearly $5 billion in contingency funds appropriated by Congress to make either full or partial SNAP payments to states.