Since late 2022, paperwork processing failures at the agency left thousands of vulnerable Alaskans without food aid for months at a time.
Alaska Quest cards can be used to buy local produce with SNAP benefits. Thousands of Alaskans effectively lost their food benefits for months at a time last year because of paperwork processing problems at a state agency. that state lawmakers have proposed a pair of bills to make systemic changes to the way the state’s food stamp program processes applications and could expand access.
And the intent there is to increase who qualifies and it’s important after so many people have gone into debt, as they waited months for food stamps and they’re really trying to recover. Also, inflation is high right now, so the amount of money people were making a year ago is not going as far as it was any longer.