Update: On Tuesday, Nov. 4, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he will not fund SNAP benefits until the “Radical Left Democrats” end the government shutdown, directly ignoring a court order to do otherwise. Later that day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that the administration will comply with the court order; however, she continued to argue that Democrats were making it difficult to get benefits out, according to CBS News.
The government has now been shut down for 38 days, breaking the record for the longest shutdown in history, which occurred in 2019 under President Donald Trump’s first term. Trump is attributing the shut down to “the Democrats,” as he announced on the White House website, and seemingly has made little to no attempts to end it.
According to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as of Oct. 16, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program has not been funded across the country because of the government shutdown. Typically, SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, “reset” every month. But, as of Nov. 1, 41 million people across the United States haven’t received their benefits. That’s 12% of the population.
On Monday, the Trump administration announced it will fund half of November’s SNAP benefits amounts from their contingency fund — a fund all past and future administrations receive. The announcement came after judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled that the administration needed to use the money it has in the fund, amounting to $5.3 million. SNAP costs roughly $9 million a month, and the administration has stated that it will not use other monetary sources to fund the remaining $5 million. It’s unclear if every family who receives benefits will get only part of their food stamps or if only some families will receive all of their stamps. It’s also unclear when recipients will even receive the reset on their cards, according to the National Public Radio.
So, here’s what this means for families. The amount you receive in SNAP benefits depends on two factors: how much you make annually and how large your household is. On average, households in America normally receive roughly $320 a month from the program. Because benefits are being split in half, families will receive, on average, $160 for the month of November. The average family in the country spends $270 a week on groceries. Basically, SNAP receipients won’t even receive enough money to buy food for more than two weeks, if even that.
I grew up on food stamps. Not the literal stamps, because it had fully transitioned to a debit card system two years before I was born. I remember when my mother would give me the green and yellow card and send me to the Rite Aid down the road for a gallon of milk. “You can get one of those fifty cent Little Debbie snacks too,” she’d graciously say, right before reminding me not to let anyone we know find out we were on government assistance. As I got older, I remember people harassing me in the lines of stores for using food stamps, telling me I was stealing their tax money and I should just be working a job. I was 14. It was always embarrassing to ask cashiers if I could use Electronics Benefit Transfer, and it was more embarrassing when they’d look at me like I was guilty of something.
Before inflation rose to record levels, my family received $300 a month, and by the end of a typical month, all we were left with were a few slices of Land O’Lakes cheese and Giant Eagle bread. We’d anxiously wait until the next month, knowing that after we got more food stamps, there’d be an influx of food we loved on the counter. This process repeated itself every month. It was a ritual for us.
What people fail to understand is that we didn’t have food stamps because we wanted them. We weren’t poor because we wanted to be. No one receives government assistance because they want to or because they don’t want to work or because they want to leech off your tax dollars. But a lot of people who are wealthy enough not to need benefits are under the impression that SNAP members are just not trying hard enough to not be poor. In reality, a lot of us are working ourselves to the bone trying to get off of assistance.
I currently receive Medicaid, which is a government-funded insurance program. Because of the Social Security Act, my healthcare isn’t at risk (the Affordable Care Act, on the other hand, is why the government has shut down, and people who benefit from the ACA are directly affected), but I could be part of those families who are having to steal from stores, wait outside food pantries and take food from trash cans just to have something for dinner. We could all be those people, starved and ridiculed by the rest of the world for doing anything in our power to feed our children and still make it to work on time (more proof that, in fact, these people do have jobs and usually multiple of them). It’s an unimaginable feeling to be punished for something you can’t control.
When Trump ran for re-election, there were poor people screaming at the top of our lungs that he would ruin our lives, that he would do everything in his power to make us suffer. But we were told by Trump supporters that Trump was the best president for this country, that he’d fix all of the poor people’s problems, that employment rates had never been higher. Now, poor families and children are being starved, homeless shelters are being closed and people are increasingly finding themselves struggling to find employment. “I voted for Trump for economic reasons,” is no longer an excuse I’m willing to take into consideration.
What bothers me most is that when some of these people see others struggling with food insecurity, their first response is to belittle them. I’ve heared people I thought were my friends talk about the SNAP cut like it’s the fault of the recipients. They don’t know I used to rely on those benefits, and if it weren’t for my college meal plan I’d still have them. At the end of the day, we’re all the same human beings as those who were born into better circumstances or who were offered better opportunities.
If you know anyone who receives benefits, please reach out to them. Ask what you can do. What a lot of people need right now is to know they’ll be cared for.
Allegheny has a free, readily available food pantry sponsored by the Food Recovery Network on the third floor of the Henderson Campus Center. It’s completely anonymous and open to anyone on campus. In Meadville, Center for Family Services runs a food bank, open Mondays and Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. At the Stone United Methodist Church downtown, free meals are served Monday through Friday from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Meadville Community Soup Kitchen. Donations for all three of these resources are always highly appreciated.
