Another state is experiencing an extreme backlog with food aid applications and recertifications.
As Jennifer Brown writes in "The Colorado Sun," "Colorado is so slow at processing applications for food assistance that it ranks in the bottom five states and is now under a corrective action plan with the federal government." While it varies per county, this means that many Coloradans who are reliant upon programs like SNAP or WIC are struggling. "The bottom line is that people who rely on nutrition assistance, formerly referred to as food stamps, are going hungry while they wait for the government to verify their applications," Brown wrote.
Shelley Banker, the director of the office of Economic Security at the state human services department told the publication that "these aren't just numbers to us."
"They are people," Banker said. "We know that feeding people is important. That’s why we’re working with our partners in the counties to really dig into this and to understand what is happening.”
Employees are working through the backlog, which ostensibly was worsened due to the pandemic, as also recently seen in Alaska. "Colorado is severely out of compliance with federal requirements," according to the USA's Food and Nutrition Service, which wrote on October 3 that "this has resulted in a hardship to needy households across Colorado who are not consistently receiving access to SNAP benefits within 7 or 30 days."
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A resident named Julie Lafasciano stated that she applied to renew her benefits back in November and hasn't heard back at all. She now calls almost daily. "The food stamps literally put food on my table," she told The Colorado Sun. "If I didn't have the food stamps, I wouldn't have food."
According to Brown, Pueblo County, for example, "processed just 26% of food assistance recertifications on time from December 2022 to October of last year." The same employees handling and processing these applications are also handling applications for Medicaid.
In addition to the backlog, food assistance participation is now at an all-time high, with an increase of 35% households filing for assistance since 2019. Many counties are attempting to use automation to help further work though the backlog.
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