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Middle Ga. Food Bank prepares to help families with food stamps if government shutdown continues

According to a news release from Georgia's Sonny Perdue, the US Secretary of Agriculture, people receiving food stamps will still receive them in January, but come February, families could see a drop in their monthly funding.

Around 700,000 Georgian households heavily rely on food stamps and EBT cards to pay for every day groceries.

According to a news release from Georgia's Sonny Perdue, the US Secretary of Agriculture, people receiving food stamps will still receive them in January, but come February, families could see a drop in their monthly funding.

"A number of families are going to be impacted if they don't have that supplemental income provided by food stamps and EBT cards. It's vital to their survival," says Rodney Mullins with Middle Georgia Food Bank. 

He says if funding becomes scarce, they will step in. "We plan to aggressively go out there distribute additional pounds of food. In one month, we typically can generate over 200,000 pounds of food that we distribute to our partner agencies," says Mullins.

Mullins says thousands around Central Georgia need extra support to feed their families, many expressing concerns to them.

"I've talked to several of our agencies that service people on the street and they said they have noticed a certain anxiety. We call it food insecurity," Mullins says.

Sonny Perdue wrote, "we will leverage our existing resources as best we can to continue the top-notch service people expect."

 According to the USDA, after January, the department will have to tap into a $3 billion emergency fund, which won't be able to cover even two-thirds of the program in February.

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