Calling it a “humanitarian crisis,” Jefferson County has declared an emergency disaster as uncertainty over the federal food stamp program hangs in the air.

The county issued the order on Saturday, allowing the county to create an emergency operations center and shift county resources toward providing food to those in need.

County commissioners also sent a letter to Gov. Jared Polis asking for the governor to declare a statewide emergency.

“This is a first,” Commissioner Rachel Zenzinger told The Denver Gazette. “The other times in which we have activated our emergency center would be around wildfires or the school shooting in Evergreen. We truly believe this is right up there. This is a humanitarian crisis.”

The declaration comes eight days after Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments lapsed due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the order blocking full SNAP payments amid signals that the government shutdown could soon end and food aid payments resume.

People who depend on the assistance in some states have received their full monthly allocations, while others have received nothing. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate has approved a bill to end the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and the House could vote on it Wednesday.

Reopening the government would restart the program, which helps 42 million people. It’s unclear how quickly full payments would resume.

In Jefferson County, nearly 40,000 rely on SNAP payments.

“Withholding food from children, the elderly, and other vulnerable community members is cruel,” Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper said in a news release. “That’s not who we are in Jefferson County. Nobody should go hungry or bear the mental stress of not knowing where their next meal will come from. This is an emergency. We are taking urgent action to help 38,000 Jeffco residents on SNAP – 13,000 of whom are children.”

The county already allocated $250,000 to local food banks before the declaration and is planning another $250,000 next week, according to Zenzinger.

The emergency declaration allows the county to coordinate with county departments, like Jefferson County Public Health and the Emergency Management Team, and shift some employees’ focus directly to helping manage the crisis.

For example, the emergency operations center created a heat map to see what areas in the county needed the most help and which foodbanks needed specific items and volunteers.

“We can’t backfill $7.8 million,” Zenzinger said. “If we want to make sure that $250,000 can go as far as it can go, we need to make sure we are following our command structure.”

“Following Jefferson County’s declaration of an emergency disaster and allocation of funds to local food banks — including Jeffco Eats — we were able to quickly increase our food purchases and distribute these additional supplies to our partner locations, such as Jeffco schools, Jeffco Head Start, Jeffco Libraries, and Section-8 Housing complexes,” Trish Day, executive director of the Jeffco Eats nonprofit, told The Denver Gazette.

“Food Bank of the Rockies and the statewide hunger relief network are facing a crisis within a crisis. Even before the government shutdown, we were already responding to the highest levels of food insecurity in more than a decade,” a representative with Food Bank of the Rockies said.

While Colorado legislators approved a $10 million cash infusion into food assistance for residents at the end of October, Zenzinger said the money isn’t given directly to the counties or to stop SNAP beneficiaries.

Instead, the funds went to a network for foodbanks, and state lawmakers were told there is no guarantee it would go to SNAP beneficiaries.

No other county has declared an emergency in response, but two have reached out to Jefferson County for information and possibly follow suit.

“Somebody has got to do it,” Zenzinger said. “There’s so much that needs to get done that nothing gets done. It gives us a step-by-step playbook so we can best put the attention of the county toward this problem.”

Food aid services can be found at jeffco.us.