DENVER — The Trump administration is supposed to start rolling out partial SNAP benefits Wednesday. This is a significant development for the roughly 600,000 Coloradans that rely on this assistance to buy food.
The money normally allocated for SNAP is frozen right now during the federal government shutdown as Congress fails to reach a deal on the national budget.
Families stretching every dollar at grocery stores and relying on food banks won’t see an end to that struggle immediately because it could still take some time before these partial SNAP benefits reach them.
The Colorado Department of Human Services received federal guidance to issue the partial assistance and is making technical system updates with its EBT processor to distribute funds as quickly as possible.
CDHS receives federal guidance to issue partial SNAP benefits
Denver7 spoke with Jefferson County nonprofit The Action Center. The group said families are stressed, confused, and facing a ripple effect that could last for months.
“It’s going to be half the amount that they normally get. We’ll see that ripple effect with need for families into December, into January, and long term, where they’ve had to make really, really hard decisions, and how it’s going to affect their financial well being in months to come,” Sunny Garcia with the Action Center said.
What Garcia is talking about is roughly $4.6 billion being released in emergency funds, which is only half of what’s usually given out. That in itself could cause confusion.
“The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not designated specific dollars per state,” the Colorado Department of Human Services said. “The compliance ruling cites that the contingency fund will be obligated to “cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments.”
States will now recalculate benefits based on new maximum allotments, but families shouldn’t expect to receive half of their usual SNAP benefits for November.
Denver7
Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Sophia Villalba
Denver7’s Sophia Villalba covers stories that have an impact in all of Colorado’s communities. If you’d like to get in touch with Sophia, fill out the form below to send her an email.
DENVER — The Colorado General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC) approved two emergency funding requests Thursday morning for low-income food and nutrition support amid federal government shutdown disruptions.
“We are getting $10 million out the door, as the federal shutdown continues, to help food banks meet record demand and continuing to fund WIC so that no parent or child goes hungry in Colorado,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a news release. “It’s also important for families with school-aged children to know that students can still receive two free meals a day at school.”
Denver
DPS preparing for increase in school meal participation amid SNAP benefit pause
The JBC approved $10 million in one-time emergency funding to expand grants for food banks and pantries statewide. It also continued the $7.5 million previously approved for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition access program.
Only $775,000 of the $7.5 million allocated for WIC was used in October, according to the governor’s office. The JBC’s approval of continued funding will ensure coverage for November benefits and Colorado WIC operations for the month. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) will repay the funds once the shutdown ends and normal operations resume, according to the governor’s office.
Under the plan that the JBC approved, the $10 million in emergency funding will be distributed through the Community Food Assistance Grant Program in three installments. The Trailhead Institute administers the Community Food Assistance Grant Program, making it possible to get resources directly to food banks and pantries more quickly.
Given the possibility that the federal government shutdown continues for a while, the funding distribution will be spaced out over Saturday, November 1, Saturday, November 15 and Monday, December 1.
State
Polis requests $10M to support food banks after lapse in November SNAP benefits
Gov. Polis previously said the $10 million is “certainly not enough” to fill the $120 million gap left by the federal government support for SNAP. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps low-income families purchase food.
To view a heat map of how many Coloradans depend on SNAP benefits, click here.
Denver7
“Half of the 600,000 Coloradans who benefit from SNAP are children; this emergency budget request pushes past the dysfunction in Washington to help families access food pantries and food banks,” JBC Vice Chair Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had been warning for weeks that SNAP funding would dry up if the federal shutdown stretched into the November. Gov. Polis called on Coloradans to help support those in need by donating to Feeding Colorado.
Denver7 Gives has also created a campaign where you can donate to help Coloradans struggling with food insecurity. Click on the form below and select “Help Fight Food Insecurity“ to donate.
The police chief for the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo used road-rage-like tactics to confront speeding drivers while he was off-duty, outside of his jurisdiction and in an unmarked state vehicle, prompting drivers to call 911 at least three times last year, an internal investigation found.
Chief Richard McMorran was reinstated to his position Aug. 15 with a 5% pay cut after a 10-month investigation into his actions. He was on paid administrative leave during that investigation, which included a review by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and a referral to prosecutors for potential criminal charges.
In an email Thursday, 10th Judicial District Attorney Kala Beauvais said her office is still considering whether criminal charges are warranted.
“We are nearing a decision,” she said.
McMorran did not return a request for comment Thursday.
On at least six occasions between January and September 2024, McMorran confronted drivers on Interstate 25 who he believed were speeding, the investigation found. The chief tailgated, raced and pulled up beside drivers. He yelled, gestured, swerved into the other drivers’ lanes, refused to let them pass, and “paced” them to gauge their speed, investigators found.
He was in the unmarked vehicle, outside of hospital grounds, off-duty and sometimes wearing plain clothes during the confrontations, the investigation found. It was not immediately clear Thursday whether the unmarked vehicle was equipped with police lights and sirens.
Two of the incidents, in January 2024 and September 2024, ended in actual traffic stops, the internal investigation found.
“You had multiple interactions with members of the public that caused them to fear for their safety and call 911. These interactions were repeatedly inappropriate, unprofessional, demonstrated poor judgment and exhibited a lack of understanding about the impact you have on members of the public when behaving this way,” Chris Frenz, deputy director of operations and legal affairs at the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health, the agency that operates the state’s mental health hospitals, wrote in an Aug. 13 disciplinary letter.
Drivers called 911 during three of the confrontations. At least one of the drivers was concerned that the chief “had ulterior motives other than traffic enforcement,” Frenz wrote.
The investigation considered whether the chief was specifically targeting women in the confrontations, spokeswoman Stephanie Fredrickson confirmed. She said the targeted drivers were both men and women but declined to give an exact breakdown of their genders “to protect their privacy.”
Frenz concluded that the chief was not specifically stopping women.
“I do not believe you were targeting (name redacted) or anyone specifically, as you admitted that it was common practice for you to identify people speeding and use various techniques to get them to slow down,” he wrote. “However, your practices very clearly gave an initial appearance of some type of targeting or harassing behavior from the viewpoint of any specific person subject to this behavior.”
During the internal investigation, McMorran denied swerving or tailgating, but generally acknowledged the incidents and told internal investigators that he feels he has “an obligation to intervene when people are driving too fast.” He said he pulled alongside drivers to monitor their speeds because his vehicle is not equipped with radar, and that the “perceived yelling and gesturing” was his way of telling the drivers to slow down.
“You were shocked that anyone thought you were trying to run off the road. You’ve never done anything like that before,” Frenz wrote in the letter, summarizing the chief’s positions during the investigation. “…If you had known so many people had been calling in, you would have approached things differently.”
The chief noted during the internal investigation that he is allowed to make traffic stops. He is a POST-certified police officer, state records show. Frenz wrote in his letter that “current policy” gives the chief the authority to conduct traffic stops.
Frenz wrote that he was reducing the chief’s salary by $498 a month, not because he made traffic stops, but because of the way he did so.
“You should have known that pacing people in an unmarked vehicle, with no uniform, without pulling them over, would cause confusion and fear,” Frenz wrote. “Moreover, your repeated conduct on the freeway reflected poorly on the department.”
In addition to the pay cut, McMorran, for the next year, is prohibited from driving his state vehicle outside of the hospital’s sprawling 300-acre campus, is prohibited from conducting traffic stops unless there is an immediate health or safety concern, and cannot drive his state vehicle to his home or use it for personal reasons, according to the letter.
The state mental health hospital’s small police department handles criminal matters at the 516-bed campus in Pueblo. The department includes a handful of certified police officers, as well as a number of security guards.
McMorran was appointed chief in 2018 when his predecessor was abruptly removed from his position, placed on administrative leave and escorted from the premises. The reason for the previous chief’s departure was not clear, but he did not return from leave.