State farm bill lauded for SNAP program fixes

BY ERIC GALATAS PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE

Colorado is the eighth mostimproved state at ensuring SNAP food assistance reaches its most vulnerable residents, according to new rankings from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Anya Rose, public policy manager for Hunger Free Colorado, said the improvements are largely due to more meaningful bene t levels and cuts to red tape during the pandemic, along with strong outreach work.

She hopes Congress will take such key factors into account as it considers the Farm Bill, which includes the program formerly known as food stamps.

“We’re hoping that some of these lessons, of what works for making sure that SNAP has the best impact it can, will be taken up in the Farm Bill,” Rose explained. “To ensure SNAP can feed people as best it can and is accessible to people.”

Hunger Free Colorado works with community partners across the state to get more people who qualify for food assistance enrolled. But after pre-pandemic SNAP work reporting requirements were reinstated, at least half a million Americans are expected to lose food assistance, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. An additional 750,000 are at risk after the debt-ceiling negotiations raised the age cap for reporting requirements to 55. e majority of SNAP participants are children and people with disabilities, and Rose pointed out most people who can work, do. She added having to ll out paperwork documenting at least of classes who they haven’t been paid to educate. ey won’t receive funding for those students until the next payment from the state, scheduled for Sept. 8.

Each month from August through May, Shuler said, providers will receive a payment determined by the number of students enrolled in their program on the 15th of the previous month. e sum will be adjusted each month so that the amount given to providers accounts for any enrollment swings and re ects the number of students in their classrooms. at leaves providers like Bright feeling pinched.

“It is very di cult for a provider to hire their sta , prepare their facilities for kids and then not necessarily have all of those seats full but yet have to pay payroll and have to pay the mortgage payment and have to turn the lights on and have to turn the heat and/or AC on,” Bright said. “It’s very di cult for us to do that when you’re now told late in the game that we’re only going to pay you based on enrollments and we’re going to true up your enrollments every month.” e state is rolling out something of a nancial safety net for providers so that they’re guaranteed at least the same amount of funding they received last year under the state’s previous preschool program, called the Colorado Preschool Program. At the end of the school year, the state will compare the amount paid to each provider this year under universal preschool to the amount paid to each provider last year through the Colorado Preschool Program, according to Bright. If a provider earns less in universal preschool than the amount they earned last year through the Colorado Preschool Program, the state will pay them the di erence, he said. e Early Childhood department was not able to clarify details of its plan to ensure providers receive at least as much funding this school year as they did last year. e only nancial path forward, he said, involves keeping kids who enroll last-minute on the sidelines until the state pays providers for them. at means, for instance, that any family who enrolls their 4-year-old from late July through mid-August will have to wait to start universal preschool until September, when Bright receives money from the state for that particular child. e Early Childhood department doesn’t believe any preschools will have to postpone the start times for any kids, with Shuler writing in an email that “payments will be reconciled for the next month and providers will receive pay if children start earlier.”

It’s not yet clear whether providers like Bright who own more than one preschool center — including two that participated in the Colorado Preschool Program and six slated to be part of universal preschool — will be compensated for each licensed facility, which will a ect the amount of funding owed by the state.

Bright added that he can’t wait until the end of the school year for funding that is crucial to his ability to keep running his business.

She said the department is also con dent that the rst payment in August, along with the monthly payments recalculated to compensate providers for any enrollment changes, will “help support providers” and are “much more providerfriendly” than other preschool subsidy programs that have paid based on the number of kids at-