5 month wait for food stamps?

I read an article in the KWED daily news yesterday about an agency that offers free legal help for families in need of food stamps.
 Kudos to the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for your generosity and care. Their contact # is 1-866-757-1570. I couldn't believe that someone that needs food would have to wait for 5 months. WOW. I believe that we help other countries in crisis over night. In this article, it stated that the government state agency is supposed to notify an applicant in 30 days. Ok now I'm getting the picture, the government is involved here, specifically the state of Texas. My first question is why would it even take 30 days to process an applicant that is in need of food, why not 24hrs, that seems appropriate for someone who needs food. I guess if I wanted to spend all day waiting on hold and navigating through the prompts on the Telephone, I would probably be given an answer that the state is undermanned and no money for more people to process these applications. Have you called a state agency lately? I did just recently. I was trying to call the Dept of Public Safety here in Seguin to see if I could pick a drivers manual for a senior to study to retake the written test and obtain a drivers license. Apparently the phone just rang and rang and no one answered. The office was being remodeled and the temporary location was downtown. I called the Highway patrol because I knew that they were in the same bldg and maybe they knew a good phone # and they didn't. I then tried to look up the number on the Internet, good luck to anybody trying to navigate this overloaded website. I gave up and still  have not obtained a book yet. Anyway back to the Dept of Human Services, understaffed and no money, there is a large group of people who need these services and waiting, waiting, and more waiting doesn't help.