In the hardest months of winter, thousands of Alaskans are waiting for food stamps as overdue applications going back half a year pile up.

The state has only processed applications from September, state health department commissioner Heidi Hedberg said. There are still 900 food stamp applications that remain from October, and no estimate for how many applications were received in November, December, or January.

Hedberg told the Anchorage Daily News last month that while some progress has been made, there is no firm timeline for when the backlog will be cleared.

State officials said the delays were due to staff shortage, a cyberattack that disrupted online services, and a flood of recertification applications after emergency pandemic allotments ended in September.

One Haines resident said she is waiting on food stamps she applied for almost three months ago. She was told by two agency employees that her application would be expedited. After still receiving no benefits, she called a third time.

“I told her we were hungry, we're running out of food. She told me there were lots of people that were hungry and running out of food and we shouldn't expect anything for at least another month,” she said in a private Facebook message.

Another resident has waited over four months for her recertification to be accepted. She is trying to feed five people with an income of $600 a month, she said.

“It’s a freaking nightmare,” she said. “You’re lucky if you can get anybody to talk to. They send you letters in the mail and my mother is legally blind. She can't see what they say. The letters just say to call.”

When she called, she was put in a two-hour phone queue.

“If they were to have people come in and just answer the phone calls, that would have been nice to hear,” she said. “At one point I was number 262 in line. They told me my wait time was two hours. You can either sit on the phone for two hours or you can leave your callback number. I left my callback number and nobody ever called.”

Federal law requires the Department of Health to provide benefits no later than 30 days after an application is accepted. Residents that qualify for expedited processing should receive benefits within seven days of their application. Ten Alaskans are suing the state for allegedly violating federal law.

Last week, Governor Mike Dunleavy added $9 million to the state’s budget to contract emergency workers to process applications. The program will condense two years of training into just two months.

Susan Briles, who manages health benefits for SEARHC patients, said the contract concerns her. She said a difficult aspect of the job is that policies are constantly changing and training efforts “can’t keep up.”

“There are so many conflicting rules depending on your household makeup, how long you've been in the country, etc,” Briles said. Going back to correct errors from poorly trained employees only complicates the already lengthy process, she said.

The department is also contracting security guards across Alaska’s 11 Division of Public Assistance offices as staff face increasing threats.