Tuscarawas County, Ohio (WJER) - The county’s Job and Family Services office is catching clients up on their SNAP benefits following the government shutdown. 

Executive Director David Haverfield says benefits recipients will receive half of their March benefits this Friday instead of their normal March delivery date. He says they’re doing this to make sure people are able to feed their families since benefits were put on hold during the shutdown.

“For somebody who may have gotten their February allotment earlier in January, they may have to wait an extended period of time if their benefits were coming for March later in March,” he says. “It could have been as much as six weeks or so between issuances.”

Haverfield says there were no guidelines in place to help them deal with this problem, but he says they had the backing of local agencies to make sure everyone was fed.

“I think this is unprecedented in terms of interrupting those benefits. Our Dover-Phila food pantry, our other food pantries, Journey’s End Ministry, we reached out to those folks, and they were willing to just step right up and say we will do whatever we need to do. We can get additional food in. We can help on additional days if we need to.” 

Haverfield says after half the benefits are paid out on Friday, clients will receive the other half on their assigned issuance date. He says the Ohio JFS department plans to then resume their normal benefits cycle in April.  

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