WINDSOR TOWNSHIP, YORK COUNTY, Pa. -- A grocery store in York County hasn't been unable to process food stamps for for last two weeks due to the partial government shutdown.
A spokesperson with D&K Surplus Grocery in Windsor Township say they had a change in ownership last month requiring them to re-apply for the SNAP store application through the USDA.
That application was put on hold shortly after the shutdown started and has been that way for the last two weeks.
“We haven’t heard anything we can’t check on anything there is nothing we can do," said Jenna Shearer, Spokesperson at D&K Surplus Grocery. “The system is unavailable," she added.
Knocking sales down and pushing away the nearly 600 snap customers that walk through their doors each week.
Dozens of signs have been placed throughout the store letting people know they are temporarily unable to help.
“It’s one of the things we do to help serve our community is help save them money and stretch their benefits," said Jane Fogel, Store Manager at D&K Surplus Grocery.“They are calling asking hey are you accepting food stamps yet and unfortunately we have to keep telling them no we are not," she added.
Desperate for help they reached out to representative Lloyd Smuckers’ office where they were quickly let down by the reality of the situation
"We will probably not see anything happen until the government reopens," said Fogel.“To hear at the end of the week that there is really nothing they can do for us it was kind of crushing for us, our customers hopes were up and our hopes were up," she added.
FOX43 reached out to Smuckers’ office and they replied in part quote -- “While the USDA has 30 days to respond to the request, we will continue to contact them on the business’ behalf. we are doing all we can do to help and hope to have a resolution on this soon.”
“It’s extremely frustrating for us we feel terrible we feel as though we did everything we could on our end," said Shearer.
For now they’re just trying to stay positive until things get back up and running.
“We’re doing the best we can to work through it," said Fogel.
