Americans prepare for expiry of critical Snap food benefits

Chantil Manuel has spent the last five years turning her life around.

A Florida woman celebrated five years in recovery from addiction, lost more than 140 pounds (64 kg) and opened her own beauty salon business.

Despite all these successes, Ms. Manuel struggles to feed herself and depends on food assistance from both local churches and the U.S. government to feed herself.

“I don’t want to need help from anyone, I want to be self-sufficient,” she says.

She is one of more than 40 million Americans who may not receive needed food assistance after Saturday due to the ongoing government shutdown caused by Congress' failure to agree on a new funding deal.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits one in eight Americans, including Ms. Manuel, and plays a vital role in how much people buy food. It works by providing people with reloadable debit cards that they can use to buy food.

But officials overseeing the program say they won't have the funds to pay full benefits come Nov. 1.

Last week, Ms. Manuel spent the last of her October Snap money on essentials such as coffee, creamer and tuna.

She couldn't pause to wonder if the government would find a solution before Saturday, when she did her shopping.

“It either will be there or it won’t,” she says. “So I could get what I need right now.”

Earlier this month, the Trump administration refused to tap into a reserve fund that could continue paying benefits, saying it was needed for potential emergencies such as natural disasters.

In any case, even these reserve funds would not be enough to completely solve the problem. They would only cover about 60% of monthly benefit payments, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a think tank focused on policy to help low-income families.

Democrats and Republicans were divided over the use of emergency funding to provide at least some relief.

Democrats argue that the Trump administration has already secured funding for other essential services during the shutdown, such as maintaining benefits for military personnel, so it could do the same with Snap.

Meanwhile, Trump Republicans say Snap will get funding again if Democrats reopen the government, seeking to blame the opposition party for the impasse now in its fifth week.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate introduced legislation Tuesday to allow Snap to continue funding during the shutdown. It remains unclear whether it will receive enough votes to pass.

As lawmakers in Washington continue to look for blame, Snap's “fundamental safety net” hangs in the balance, said Hannah Garth, a Princeton University professor who studies food insecurity.

“Many users make very little money even though they work,” she says. “And so it becomes a critical lifeline that keeps families out of deep, deep poverty. It can also be the tipping point that lifts some families out of poverty.”

Because those funds may not be replenished starting Saturday, many Americans will have to turn to other places, such as food banks, for food.

On a sunny Tuesday, about a dozen volunteers fill a packing shed inside the All Faiths Food Bank in Sarasota, Florida.

Last year they fed more than 80,000 people with more than 22 million pounds of food, and the need in the area continues to grow, said Nelle Miller, CEO of the food bank.

Since the current government shutdown began, the food bank has seen an increase in the number of people in need of food.

“We had three hurricanes here last year. It was a disaster, but this is a new storm,” she says. “The difference is that people don't get better right away.”

About 20,000 people in the area benefit from Snap benefits, and of those people, about 6,000 also use food bank resources, she said.

Ms. Miller is concerned about what will happen to those 14,000 Snap recipients after their payments stop this weekend. Will they also need help from the food bank, she asks.

While All Faiths can redistribute its food supply to feed more people if needed, doing so will mean less food for each person, she explains.

“Getting food is an inalienable right. You were born on Earth, there is enough food here to feed everyone. It's a distribution issue,” Ms. Miller said.

“I just can't imagine denying food, water or air to any person. It's really difficult, it's very unpleasant.”

A family of four receives an average of $715 (£540) a month, according to CBPP, which works out to just under $6 per person per day.

But as an individual, Austin Lemmer earns even less—$295 a month.

He's already spent his October Snap benefit and is preparing to not receive one next month.

“I'm very worried,” he says. “I'm trying to stretch the little food I have as much as possible, but you can only do so much, especially when you're already living on bags of rice and canned beans.”

Individual states administer the programs, with most funding coming from the federal government.

Several states have pledged to use their own funds to cover the shortfall, but the federal government has warned they will not be reimbursed.

Some states, including Florida, have said Snap recipients will lose benefits if nothing is done before the weekend.

Trying to stop it, 25 Democratic attorneys general in 25 states plus the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its plan to cut off food aid funding.

They argued that the administration's decision not to use emergency funds would be illegal and would prevent millions of Americans from being able to buy food.

Responding to the lawsuit, the USDA blamed Democrats for the drying up of the fund and said the party needs to decide whether it wants to “support the far left wing of the party or reopen the government so mothers, children and the most vulnerable among us can receive WIC and SNAP payments on time.”

The government shutdown entered its 29th day Wednesday and is the second-longest shutdown in history.

There has been no meaningful progress toward an agreement to reopen the government.

That's what upset many Snap recipients like Ms. Manuel.

“I don't feel [the politicians in Washington] would make the decision they make if it affected them the way it affects us,” she says.

“As long as they're eating, that's what they care about.”