CHINATOWN, Oahu (KHON2) — With the federal government shutdown now in its second month, local businesses are beginning to see some changes, with some of their customers no longer receiving their usual funds from SNAP benefits.
“We have a huge clientele that relies on SNAP benefits, I’ll say over 50% for sure… let’s say 75%,” said Frankie Chun, partial family owner of Chun’s Meat Market in Chinatown. “They range from ordering or buying fresh pork and live seafood, so we did see a decline in that, especially this week.”
SNAP benefits were expected to be suspended for the month of November, until the Trump Administration announced Monday that they would provide 50% of the usual SNAP funds to its recipients.
Last week, Governor Josh Green announced that the state would provide $250 for eligible individuals on SNAP, which is still the plan moving forward.
“No matter what the federal government did, the state of Hawaii was going to go forward with the $250 food assistance program that Governor Green created,” said Joseph Campos, Deputy Director of the Department of Human Services.
The $250 payment will go out on or before November 14th.
The DHS states that they’re still awaiting guidance from the USDA regarding when the partial SNAP payments will be distributed, but when they are, it is expected to have a positive impact on Hawaii’s local economy.
“The stats are that for every dollar that comes in at the SNAP program, it has a $1.80 on economic impact within the state,” said Campos. “So the Governor’s $250 per individual will more than likely have that same economic impact for the state’s economy.
But some vendors say that their business has been slow for months, even before this month’s loss of SNAP, and as the shutdown continues, they’re preparing for it to get even slower.
“We’re ordering less so that we can keep the products fresh,” said Chun. “At the same time, I’d like to speak with the team what we can do on our end as a business to help with the total cost for the SNAP benefits, for example, maybe dropping the change and just going for the dollars (on prices of products).”