food shortages

In Oklahoma and around the U.S., elected officials are seeking ways to provide food assistance to needy residents as the federal government shutdown affects SNAP.

Democrats and Republicans have different proposals to keep feeding hundreds of thousands of Kansans. Food banks are preparing for an influx of demand.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is joining Democrats from 24 other states in suing President Donald Trump's administration over the lapsed funding.

Food assistance for almost 700,000 Oklahomans in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will be suspended next month because of the federal government shutdown. People use the program to help buy groceries for their households.

Over the summer, hundreds of thousands of meals were distributed by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

President Donald Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' shifts more Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program costs to states. Lawmakers and officials in support of the new measure say it will cut down on waste and fraud, but food advocates warn it could mean fewer people receiving the benefit.

The Trump Administration is asking states to more closely watch the citizenship status of people receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But some advocates for immigrant families worry the messaging could hurt people who are eligible for the food assistance.

Thousands of schools, farmers and food pantries in the Midwest and Great Plains planned on federal dollars over the next year to support local food purchases. And then the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut the programs.

Efforts to keep junk foods from being paid for by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are increasing at the federal and state level. Lawmakers proposing such bills say they want to encourage healthy habits, but some food advocates say the restrictions would have harmful effects.

Harvesters, the food bank that serves the Kansas City area and helps supply food to local pantries and shelters, says that thousands of cases of canned food, eggs, milk and more were called off by President Trump's U.S. Department of Agriculture.