MACON, Ga. — "My food security was always something I could count on. Today may be a bad day but at least we could go home have fully bellies and go to bed," says Heaven Smith.
Smith relies on her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to help feed her 3 kids, herself, and her mom that lives with her. In December her snap balance stayed at $0 and hasn't moved since.
"Now I feel like I'm failing my kids because I can't get them the food they need. It's at the point where I'm not eating and my kids aren't," says Smith.
We reached out to Department of Human Services (DHS). They say they have over 76,000 total pending renewals, a little over 31,000 overdue, and close to 23,000 pending state action.
"I call everyday. I emailed the email they gave me and it responded by saying we'll forward your case to the right office and someone will call you within 48 hours. I email it twice a day everyday since the 17th and no one will call me back," says Smith.
DHS says the main driver of their uneven workload distribution is the increase in SNAP applications they received when kids head back to school each fall. They say it's from parents applying for their children to receive free or reduced-price lunch spurs increased interest in SNAP.
"With 3 kids 2 being autistic that is a lot on a single mom. I'm tired," says Smith.
In the past, DHS also listed staffing as another reason why these families can't get the money they need to eat. Right now they have about 1,300 caseworkers who are trained to work snap cases. We talked to DHS about when people can expect to get their snap benefits. They said "We do not have an estimated timeline to share at this time."
Over the recent months, DHS has been offering overtime to expand capacity of their caseworkers. They're also bringing back retired caseworkers to help process renewals.