Millions will likely lose food aid as shutdown drags on : NPR

In just over a week, almost 42 million people in the USA, which receive federal food assistance is at risk of losing its benefits due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

About one in eight people in the United States receives an average of $187 per month from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). One of those people is Shari Jablonowski. A 66-year-old widow living outside Pittsburgh is preparing to lose $291 in food assistance that her disabled nephew receives each month. She has raised her now adult nephew and two nieces as her own, and even without this looming crisis, her budget remains tight.

“This month I couldn’t afford to pay… neither for gas nor for electricity,” she says. Instead, she paid a monthly car payment because she needs to travel to doctor's appointments, visit her mother, and one niece uses the car to get to work.

If her nephew's food benefits disappear in November? “I'm very concerned that I won't have heat,” she says. It would also ruin Thanksgiving.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is the nation's largest hunger-relief program.

“The vast majority are children, working people, older Americans, veterans and people with disabilities,” Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, says of food stamp recipients. “If SNAP ends, we will experience the worst hunger we have seen in America since the Great Depression.”

For most people, SNAP is the only money they receive directly. Cash wealth declined sharply in the 1990s, Berg notes, and Medicaid payments go directly to doctors, hospitals and drug companies. “The only thing that truly helps moderate- and low-income Americans meet their basic monthly expenses is the SNAP program. And that’s why it’s so important, not just in terms of fighting hunger, but just in keeping tens of millions of Americans afloat every month,” he says.

In addition, a separate nutrition program for 7 million pregnant women and new parents is also at risk running out of money. Trump administration raised $300 million in tariff funds to keep WIC – the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children – afloat, but it is expected to end within weeks. Some states say they will help fill this funding gapbut not everyone has the resources for this.

USDA is under pressure to continue funding SNAP

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warned that SNAP funding would end on Nov. 1, and the USDA told states that payments were suspended “until further notice.”

The agency blames Democrats who say they won't vote to end the shutdown unless Republicans agree. expand Affordable Care Act tax breaks to prevent health insurance premiums from skyrocketing.

In a statement to NPR, a USDA spokesperson said, “We are approaching a tipping point for Senate Democrats. Continue to fight for health care for undocumented immigrants or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive WIC and SNAP benefits on time.”

Illegal immigrants have no right for the Affordable Care Act.

Food aid advocates say the USDA can and should continue to fund SNAP. “SNAP still has billions of dollars in so-called contingency reservesThat won't cover the entire amount, but she says the agency could legally transfer additional funds like they did for the WIC nutrition program. In fact, Berg argues that the USDA has a legal obligation to fund SNAP because it is a benefit program.

Department officials did not respond to NPR's question about whether such a legal obligation exists.

The origins of food benefits in the United States date back to the Great Depression. If funding stops next month, Berg says, “we'll be in uncharted territory.”

And for some SNAP recipients, it could be a double whammy. This is because many will be exposed new job requirements tied to profit starting November 1, the same day their benefits could end.

The work requirements passed by congressional Republicans earlier this year are expected to push 2.4 million people out of the program over the next decade.

States and food banks are scrambling to help.

IN letter on Thursday, The U.S. Conference of Mayors also called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prevent SNAP benefits from ending, saying the program helps stabilize local economies. Each month, the federal government pays out $8 billion in SNAP benefits. The money is automatically added to a debit card, which recipients can then use at grocery stores, farmers markets and other locations. More than 250,000 food retailers count on that income, says Hunger Free America's Berg.

It is unclear whether the government will act in time to prevent SNAP benefits from ending. And if it does – but waits until the last minute – it will take days to distribute the benefits to states and then to people's spending cards.

Meanwhile, states preparation for spike in demand in food banks. Virginia, for example, announced state of emergency and said it would provide food benefits. Governor of Colorado urged people to donate to food banks, and California has said it will send National Guard troops to help food banks, as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But advocates say even expanded food relief will in no way make up for the loss of billions in federal funding.

Meanwhile, Shari Jablonowski is struggling to figure out how to deal with the huge hole in her budget. She already visits food pantries and plans to do more. But “there’s nothing I can do to make money,” she says. “I'm not in the best health.”

Now she makes large batches of soup and freezes it for later.