- April 5, 2023
- Every Texan
It’s not just El Paso — families throughout the Lone Star State face delays in getting the help they
need. In July 2022, a single mother in North Texas waited on her SNAP benefits for nearly two
months after submitting her application. East Texans are reaching out to their local news
stations with their concerns. At one point in July 2022, more than 300,000 SNAP applications
were waiting to be processed. Though the system is now slowly catching up, state workers
themselves have accessed food banks while waiting for their own SNAP applications to go
through. That’s right — some state workers make such low wages that they qualify for the
same benefits they work to process. It’s not just SNAP. Texans applying for Medicaid also face
delays. Health clinic staff members report trying to assist a pregnant woman who waited two
months for her Medicaid application to be approved, delaying her access to prenatal care. The
backlog is causing families to go without food and health benefits while they wait for their
applications and renewals to go through the system.