Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday how the commonwealth plans to replace the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program with a parallel system to distribute benefits to Virginians amid the government shutdown, which is entering its fifth week.

Benefits will be distributed on a weekly — rather than monthly — basis to SNAP beneficiaries’ existing Electronic Benefits Transfer cards beginning Nov. 3, assuming the shutdown continues until at least Saturday, Youngkin said at a news conference.

More than 850,000 Virginians rely on SNAP benefits for food security. Virginia’s roughly $2.7 billion budget surplus is funding the new system, called Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance, which will cost roughly $37.5 million per week to operate, according to Youngkin.

The emergency syst

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