Tescha Hawley with the Day Eagle Hope Project is helping load over 30 cattle into a trailer on the Fort Belknap Reservation. Hawley’s nonprofit is working with other local organizations to buy and process the meat for families on SNAP.
“We will, in turn, purchase the hamburger and stew meat and bring it back to Fort Belknap and redistribute it into our food pantries and into our communities,” Hawley says.
This is part of the Fort Belknap community’s response to SNAP benefits being frozen in November.
Friday, two courts ordered the Trump administration to release roughly $6 billion in emergency funding to pay partial SNAP benefits. The courts also asked the administration to use other funding to send full payments to families.
The administration said Monday it would send partial payments. It's unclear when families will receive their November benefits.
The Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and state Democratic leadership have asked Gov. Greg Gianforte to use state reserve funds to cover SNAP payments like other states have.
Gianforte has said the state won’t do that and blamed congressional Democrats for the shutdown.
The Fort Belknap Indian Community is setting up new food banks around the reservation, including at schools. But Hawley says unemployment in the winter months can hit 90%. Demand for food far outstrips supplies.
“We have a plan for the next two months," she says. "But after that, there is no more funding. Even if, and when, resources are restored for SNAP, families are still struggling. They are still going to be behind.”
Other tribes offer their own food programs, but families enrolled in SNAP don’t qualify. Rob McDonald with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes says families that can wait for renewed federal assistance should do so.
“Because once you disenroll from SNAP, it can be an arduous process getting back into the system.” McDonald says.
McDonald says the tribes are requesting meetings with Gianforte and Montana’s congressional delegation.
Some tribes say they may rely on hunters to donate meat. Tribes with bison herds are also considering slaughtering animals to help feed local families.
