A major outage with the United States’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is reportedly affecting Americans across the country.
According to Down Detector, SNAP users began reporting outages around 8:30 a.m. pacific time on Sunday morning. By noon, nearly 5,000 users had reported outages around the country.
SNAP is a program that helps supplement the food budget of low-income Americans, WWBT reported.
While the program previously used food stamps as the primary way for Americans to pay for their food, it has since switched to a system called Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT).
The EBT works in a manner “similar to a debit card that allows a SNAP participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits,” WWBT reported. However, the EBT suffered major outages Sunday, leaving some Americans unable to pay for food.
Many Americans took to Twitter to describe the problems they were encountering due to the EBT outages.
“I jus called the police over here they won’t accept my ebt and they won’t let me pay later when the system comes back up this ain’t right we starrvin out here,” one user wrote on Twitter.
I jus called the police over here they won’t accept my ebt and they won’t let me pay later when the system comes back up this ain’t right we starrvin out here
— Lashika (@Lashika2fine4u) August 28, 2022
Should America increase spending on EBT and SNAP benefits?
“EBT is down in NYS and it’s interesting to see how much power the government has,” another user wrote. “People are losing it today, just saw a woman who shopped for over $200 worth of stuff have to return everything because her card wasn’t working.”
EBT is down in NYS and it’s interesting to see how much power the government has. People are losing it today, just saw a woman who shopped for over $200 worth of stuff have to return everything because her card wasn’t working
— ً. (@folakebianca) August 28, 2022
Other Americans encouraged neighbors to cover the cost of groceries for people who may be unable to purchase them through EBT due to the outage.
“Apparently the EBT system is down nationally so folx who don’t use EBT, please keep an eye out for neighbors who might be getting denied at the store and cover their food if you are able,” one user wrote.
Apparently the EBT system is down nationally so folx who don’t use EBT, please keep an eye out for neighbors who might be getting denied at the store and cover their food if you are able.
— kelly with dragons (@GreenMerdragon) August 28, 2022
Still others expressed anger at the Biden administration for the outage.
“EBT is down all across the country welcome to Biden’s America,” one Twitter user commented.
EBT is down all across the country ? welcome to Biden’s America
— Masterbigwater (@masterbigwater) August 28, 2022
Another user mocked Biden for focusing on funding for Ukraine rather than struggling Americans.
“#ebt is down so we can give more money to Ukraine… Sorry those on #ebt need to skip a few meals for Ukraine says Biden Admin,” the user wrote.
#ebt is down so we can give more money to Ukraine… Sorry those on #ebt need to skip a few meals for Ukraine says Biden Admin
— TechMarine062 (@TMarine062) August 28, 2022
While the cause of the EBT outage has not yet been identified, the crisis is yet another PR nightmare for the Biden administration. More importantly, it leaves many Americans without a way to pay for the nutrition they need.
