WSeveral hungry Los Angeles residents recently gathered outside the Community Space food bank's storefront, grabbing dry goods such as baked goods, bagels, lentils and pasta, as well as chilled salads and bags of frozen brisket.
According to founder Gaines Newborn, the crowd ebbs and flows all day, but last week news spread that a federal supplemental program Nutrition The aid program (Snap) will end on Saturday, he prepared for the need for a sharp increase.
“I'm getting more calls than ever from concerned people saying, 'My food stamps are going down, I need a plan,'” Newborn said. “People are trying to get ahead of the food insecurity problem.”
As the federal government shutdown enters its second month, Trump administration announced that Snap, which helps about 42 million people afford food each month, will run out of its funding in early November – something that has never happened before in the program's half-century history.
On Friday, two separate federal judges blocked An attempt by the government to stop paying benefits, but the administration can appeal the decision to a higher court. Food banks remain on the brink of possible benefit cuts as they face increased demand driven by federal workers who went unpaid during the shutdown and people who struggled to afford rising food prices.
“It's honestly hard for me to imagine the scale of what will happen when 1.8 million New Yorkers don't have the benefit they rely on to buy groceries,” said Nicole Hunt, director of public policy and advocacy for Food Bank for NYC, which serves the nation's most populous city.
The organization, New York's largest, had planned to increase its assistance during the period when Snap was unavailable, but Hunt said they could not match the level of assistance provided by the federal program.
“We're going to do what we do, which is show up with food. We're going to try to focus as much as possible on the areas that will be hit the hardest and gather all the resources that we can, but it's just not a scale that we can match, and that's the reality of how important Snap is and how many people rely on it,” she said.
The federal government shut down on the first day of October after Democrats and Republicans in Congress were unable to agree on legislation that would allow continued funding. Some 700,000 federal workers have been furloughed, and hundreds of thousands more have been told to continue working for pay that will only come once funding is restored.
The impasse continues as Republicans refuse Democratic demands to combine government funding legislation with an extension of tax breaks that lowered costs for health plans under the Affordable Care Act. Although Senate Republican leaders have tried 13 times to pass a bill to reopen the government, Democrats have refused to budge, with no sign of a resolution in sight.
Snap's benefits continued during previous shutdowns, including those during Donald Trump's first term, and the Department of Agriculture's report outlining its plans for the latest shutdown indicated they would continue through this period.
But that report has been removed from the department's website and replaced with a message that attacks Democratic senators and reads: “Bottom line: The well has dried up. There will be no benefits issued on November 1st at this time.”
David Super, a professor at Georgetown Law School, said that between the money set aside for Snap and funds for other programs that the law allows it to repurpose, the department could keep Snap dollars flowing if it wanted to.
“The clear intent of Congress is that this money will be available to pay benefits,” Super said at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution. “They are cutting benefits to put pressure on Senate Democrats, and they posted this offensive and dishonest statement on their website trying to blame anyone but themselves for this completely voluntary end to Snap benefits.”
Terminating the program would create a need that no food bank could meet.
On average, Snap serves 95 million meals per month in New York City. In all of last year, Food Bank for NYC distributed 85 million meals, according to Zach Hall, senior vice president of programs.
“We're seeing mothers worrying about what they're going to be able to make for dinner for their kids, grandmothers worrying about what they're going to put on the table for Thanksgiving,” Hall said.
In the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, Second Harvest Heartland, the country's second-largest food bank, is stocking up on extra supplies to be ready for Snap's closure, according to Sarah Moberg, Snap's CEO.
“The Hunger Relief Network was not created to do Snap's job,” Moberg said. “We're designed to instantly satisfy someone's immediate hunger needs, and Snap is designed to do that much more efficiently.”
The pain of the cuts will be especially acute for federal workers already struggling to get by without their regular paychecks.
“It's terrible,” said Christina Deschabert, 52, a Bronx resident who worked for free for the Transportation Security Administration at John F. Kennedy International Airport. “You're talking about trying to survive without any checks. I had to come to the food bank to get food so our family could survive.”
One New York mother, who requested anonymity, said she was considering removing her 2-year-old from day care because both she and her husband were federal employees.
“We live in a family where we both don’t have a salary, and that’s the hardest part,” she said. “My son is under three so there is no free daycare, so if this goes on for another month or so I might just take him with me and leave him at home so I don't have to pay for daycare.”
Joshua Cobos, Community Space volunteer at Los Angelesis himself a Snap recipient. He's hoping the credit he earned from his hours working at the food bank will help him get through the end of his benefits.
“I'm packing as much as I can here and with all the events coming up, I feel like we're going to be busy,” Cobos said.
Some cities and states have taken steps to prevent the financial hit of Snap's shutdown. Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, said Thursday state of emergency it would free up $65 million in state funds for food banks. Tim Walz, Minnesota's governor, is directing $4 million in state funding to grocery shelves to help address the Snap shortage, but the need is much greater: $73 million is coming from Minnesota federal funds for the program.
The Atlanta Food Bank, which has seen its monthly need increase 70% over the past three and a half years, announced On Thursday, the company will receive $5 million in contingency funds to stock its pantries in anticipation of a surge in demand from unpaid federal workers and Snap beneficiaries. Andre Dickens, the city's mayor, also announced a temporary moratorium on evictions and water shutoffs to support residents affected by the cessation of food assistance.
Super, the Georgetown law professor, warned that ending Snap's funding bodes bad news for the program's long-term future in Washington.
“Until now, this has not been something political or ideological, and it would be tragic if we crossed that line and it really became part of guerrilla warfare,” he said.
