‘Uncharted territory’: Ongoing shutdown threatens food aid for 42 million people

In just over a week, nearly 42 million people in the U.S. who get federal food assistance are in danger of seeing their benefits disappear because of the ongoing federal shutdown.

About 1 in 8 U.S. residents get an average of $187 a month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. One of those people is Shari Jablonowski. The 66-year-old widow, who lives outside Pittsburgh, is bracing to lose the $291 in food aid her disabled nephew gets each month. She raised her now-adult nephew and two nieces as her own, and even without this looming crisis, her budget is a tightrope.

“This month, I could not afford to pay … anything, gas or electric,” she says. Instead she paid her monthly car payment, since she needs to drive to doctors’ appointments, visit her mother, and one niece uses the car to get to work.

If her nephew’s food benefit disappears in November? “I am very concerned I will not have heat,” she says. It would also ruin Thanksgiving.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is the country’s largest anti-hunger 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 the SNAP program shuts down, we will have the most mass hunger suffering we’ve had in America since the Great Depression.”

For most people, SNAP is the only money they get directly. Cash welfare was dramatically reduced in the 1990s, Berg notes, and Medicaid payments go directly to doctors, hospitals and drug companies.”The only thing that really helps moderate income and low-income Americans meet their basic monthly expenses is the SNAP program. And that’s why it’s so vital, not only in terms of fighting hunger, but just keeping tens of millions of Americans afloat each month,” he says.

In addition, a separate nutrition program for 7 million pregnant women and new parents is also at risk of running out of money. The Trump administration tapped $300 million in tariff funds to keep WIC — the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — afloat, but it’s expected to run out within a few weeks. Some states say they’ll help fill that funding gap, but not all have the resources for that.

There’s pressure on USDA to keep funding SNAP

Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has warned that SNAP funding will run out on Nov. 1, and USDA has told states that payments are on hold “until further notice.”

The agency blames Democrats, who say they won’t vote to end the shutdown unless Republicans agree to extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act to keep health insurance premiums from skyrocketing.

In a statement to NPR a USDA spokesperson said, “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. Continue to hold out for healthcare for illegals or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments.”

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for the Affordable Care Act.

Food aid advocates say USDA can and should keep funding SNAP. “SNAP still has billions of dollars in what are called contingency reserves,” says Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research and policy institute. That wouldn’t cover the entire amount, but she says the agency could legally transfer additional funds, as they’ve done for the WIC nutrition program. In fact, Bergh argues USDA has a legal obligation to fund SNAP since it’s an entitlement program.

Department officials did not respond to an NPR query about whether there is such a legal obligation.

The origins of U.S. food benefits go back to the Great Depression. If funding does lapse next month, Bergh says, “We would be in uncharted territory.”

And for some SNAP recipients it could be double whammy. That’s because many will be subject to new work requirements tied to the benefit starting November 1 – the same day their benefits might end.

The work requirements, passed by Congressional Republicans earlier this year, are expected to push 2.4 million people off the program over the next decade.

States and food banks are scrambling to help

In a letter Thursday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors also urged USDA not to let SNAP benefits be disrupted, saying the program helps stabilize local economies.Each month, the federal government pays $8 billion in SNAP benefits. The money is automatically added to a debit-like card that recipients can then use at groceries, farmers markets and other places. More than 250,000 food retailers count on that income, says Berg with Hunger Free America.

It’s not clear whether the government will act in time to prevent SNAP benefits from ending. And if it does – but waits until the last minute – it would take days to get the benefits distributed to states and then onto people’s spending cards.

Meanwhile, states are preparing for a spike in demand at food banks. Virginia, for example, declared a state of emergency and said it would provide food benefits. Colorado’s governor urged people to donate to food banks, and California said it would send National Guard troops to help out at food banks, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But advocates say even expanded food charity will nowhere near make up for the loss of billions in federal funding.

Meanwhile, Shari Jablonowski struggles to think how she’ll cope with a major hole in her budget. She already visits food pantries and plans to step that up. But “there’s nothing I can do to make money,” she says. “I’m not in the greatest of health.”

For now, she’s making big batches of soup and freezing some for later.