Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has announced details of the new Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance System. The program is designed to assist those who will lose SNAP benefits on November 1 due to the government shutdown.

Virginia has built a parallel system to SNAP that will begin on November 3 and will use the same SNAP cards that are already being used. Those who received assistance in October will receive the benefits in November.

The system is being funded by a state surplus that costs $37.5 million per week.

The benefits will be deposited weekly starting on Monday November 3 for the first third of beneficiaries. The second third of recipients will receive their benefits on Wednesday November 5 and the final third will receive theirs on Friday November 7.

The benefits will follow that same weekly schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the government is opened.

Governor Youngkin has also announced that $1 million in state funds will be deposited into the food bank network for Virginia by this weekend to combat the delay in funding from November 1 to November 3.

For  more information visit DSS.Virginia.Gov.