"On Saturday morning, Genaro Alfonzo pulled up to the Kia Forum in Inglewood wearing his Dodgers hat and jersey, with a flag for his Boys in Blue flapping from a Toyota pickup truck. But the morning after his beloved Dodgers won Game 6 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Alfonzo was not happy. It was nearly 11 a.m., and the 70-year-old had not yet eaten. Just this, he said, tearing up as he held up a blue plastic coffee cup, half empty."
"On Friday, two federal judges, in separate rulings, ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin using more than $5 billion in contingency funds for SNAP during the government shutdown. But they gave the agency until Monday to figure out how to do so. Although the orders were a win for people who rely on SNAP, they did not mean that recipients would be spared a lapse in food aid."
"Alfonzo was among thousands of people who showed up to a drive-through food distribution event Saturday at the Kia Forum put on by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on the first day of a lapse in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. It was the first day of the month the first day of a pause in federal food assistance for millions of low-income Americans, including 5.5 million Californians, because of the government shutdown that began Oct. 1."
Thousands of people lined up at a drive-through food distribution at the Kia Forum in Inglewood after SNAP benefits lapsed at the start of a government shutdown. A 70-year-old man named Genaro Alfonzo arrived hungry and emotionally affected by the lack of work and rising costs. Two federal judges ordered USDA to use more than $5 billion in contingency SNAP funds but gave the agency until Monday to implement the orders. State and local food banks mobilized to meet increased demand. California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned that court rulings would not immediately reload CalFresh and other benefit cards.
Read at www.latimes.com
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