OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, and Oklahoma Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, released the following statements in response to a vote from Oklahoma GOP leaders to make funds available to food banks amid SNAP benefit lapse. 

State GOP leaders announced they will vote to make $1M per week available to Oklahoma’s food banks serving all 77 counties for up to seven weeks, contingent upon lack of federal funding for SNAP during the federal shutdown.

“We appreciate the targeted emergency support being voted on by Oklahoma Republican Leaders, but we know that it is still not enough. It is unfortunate that it took so long for those in the highest positions of power in Oklahoma to act on behalf of hungry Oklahomans. House and Senate Democrats gave clear ideas for temporary solutions for funding for our state’s largest food banks. We reiterate our request to use Rainy Day Funds for food banks and want to consider other solutions. According to a guidance from Conduent sent to Governors across the country, one solution would be creating a state-funded emergency SNAP benefits program to put money on EBT cards like we have seen other states do. It may be a complicated process, but when Oklahomans are in need, they deserve every effort from those who serve them. We stand ready to work together on furthering efforts to support Oklahomans who rely on SNAP benefits and other programs that are affected by the federal shutdown. We cannot control the dysfunction in Washington, but we can continue to support the Oklahomans we were elected to serve.” – House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City

“This is a start, but one million dollars will not make up for the 30 million dollars normally sent weekly to Oklahomans by the SNAP program. We need solutions to the magnitude of the problem. I am grateful that our food banks are well organized and able to scale up in times of emergency, but we can't expect private organizations to fill our public responsibility to each other. The state must step up.

“We reiterate our call for a special session to ensure Oklahomans don’t go hungry. We need to come in, get to work and make sure we have funds ready for these big challenges immediately.” – Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City

The funding will be deployed from the State Emergency Fund, which currently holds $7.8M.

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