NORTH KINGSTOWN – Ocean State Job Lot has announced that the entire food section in all 17 Rhode Island stores will be discounted by 20% effective immediately, in response to the ongoing SNAP crisis due to the government shutdown.
“At Job Lot, we've learned how many of our fellow Rhode Islanders are being significantly impacted by the interruption in the federal SNAP program,”, Principal Owner and CEO, Ocean State Job Lot Marc Perlman said. “To help ease this burden, starting immediately, the entire food section of our Rhode Island stores will be discounted by 20% to all customers until the SNAP program is fully funded and stable.”
The discount includes to coffee and tea, peanut butter and jam, as well as ingredients like cooking oils and spices, and hundreds of Bob’s Red Mill products, until the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has been fully reinstated.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. However, President Donald Trump’s said Monday that it the administration will partially fund SNAP after two judges issued rulings requiring it to keep the nation’s largest food aid program running.
The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs about $8 billion per month nationally.
The USDA, which oversees the nation’s largest food program, said last month that benefits for November wouldn’t be paid out due to the federal government shutdown. That set off a scramble by food banks, state governments and the nearly 42 million Americans who receive the aid to find ways to ensure access to groceries.
Through its Charitable Foundation, Ocean State Job Lot partnered with the United Cajun Navy to coordinate the delivery of 91,531 pounds of organic pasta – equivalent to more than 183,000 eight-ounce boxes – to active-duty military personnel and their families affected by the ongoing government shutdown to Fort Hood, Texas, Fort Polk, La., and other U.S. military base locations where military families are experiencing food insecurity.
The organic pasta, which includes shells, elbows, and linguine, was donated by one of the company’s food distribution vendors in Illinois. Upon learning of the available inventory, Ocean State Job Lot reached out to the United Cajun Navy to ensure the product reaches communities where it was needed most.
Ocean State Job Lot operates 176 stores across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
Veer Mudambi is the Special Projects Editor at the Providence Business News. He can be reached at mudambi@pbn.com.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
