Some 850,000 Virginians who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to feed themselves and their families faced a desperate situation as money for that modest monthly assistance was set to end on Saturday amid the ongoing federal shutdown.

Thanks to a record budget surplus, however, the commonwealth will stand up a program to provide those benefits on a weekly basis for at least a few weeks. That extends a welcome lifeline to anxious families, but does not alleviate the need for Congress to broker a deal and reopen the government as soon as possible.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced last week that he would take the “extraordinary action” of declaring a state of emergency in the commonwealth “to protect hungry Virginians in need.” It was an important and necessary st

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