The Trump administration said Monday that SNAP benefits, formerly called the food stamp program, will use an emergency fund to pay half of the normal payments in the wake of the government shutdown. This is not helping a bad situation, according to Florida Gulf Coast University professor of social work Thomas Felke.

"That fund is around $5 billion plus. But the amount needed to run the SNAP program is about $9.2 billion," he said.

In addition, there is no timeline for these half-payments and no guarantees that this administration will pay retroactive SNAP benefits to these households, Felke said. "So they could see a complete loss at this point."

Affected are about 130,000 people in a local five-county area, including Charlotte. Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee. The majority are in Lee C

See Full Page