Governors plead for food stamp flexibility amid pandemic

PHOENIX (AP) — Yvonne Knight, who has respiratory problems that make her especially vulnerable in the coronavirus pandemic, can't buy groceries online with her food stamps — even though each trip to the store is now a risky endeavor.

Going out to buy food terrifies the 38-year-old woman with cerebral palsy, but she is one of millions of people who receive food aid through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that can't be used in flexible ways.

“Every time I go out, I put myself at risk — and other people,” said Knight, who lives in Erie, Pennsylvania. “I’m so terrified when people come up to me now. I don’t want to go out to the store.”

Buying groceries online — which many Americans are doing to drastically reduce how often they leave their homes — is only open to SNAP recipients in six U.S. states, and Pennsylvania is not one of them.

Now, state governments and food security activists across the country are imploring the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make the program more flexible and easier to access at a time when so many people are losing their jobs and turning to the government for support.

The calls have even come from conservative states where lawmakers have tried to reduce or limit food aid.

In Arizona, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has asked the agency to waive interview requirements for applicants, allow families to purchase hot meals, waive work requirements for some and enact other changes that would help families deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Ashley St. Thomas, the public policy manager for the Arizona Food Bank Network, lauded the governor’s request, adding that relaxing requirements that program recipients prove they are working at least some hours each month is “critical right now” —...