People Feed the People Amidst Ongoing Gov’t Shutdown, Snap Funding Cliff
With federal funding for SNAP - Supplemental Nutrition Access Program - expiring on November 1 for over 42 million people amidst the second-longest (soon to be longest) government shutdown, the people are showing up in their communities to feed and serve one another. Given the federal government’s failure to support the people, mutual aid and systems of care are necessary as the class war deepens between the working class and the top 1 percent.
Local businesses like Heretic Coffee Co. in southeast Portland are showing up to support their community amidst these troubling times, raising over $86,000 for folks who are losing SNAP benefits in their community.
In this same spirit, concerned neighbors in Wisconsin developed a grassroots mutual aid network dubbed Madison Grocery Share (MGS)to help crowdsource and fund local food pantries and hubs in Dane and Madison counties that are likely to face a surge in demand starting the first of November. “Madison Grocery Share works alongside, not instead of, local food pantries. If you’re able, please keep donating to and supporting them. They do incredible work and can stretch every dollar further than we can at the store.” The group's three main asks:
Donate to a local food pantry
Volunteer with MGS/local food pantries; and
Contact your Congressperson to protect SNAP benefits.
Separately from SNAP, there is another federal food assistance program that very few folx know about — The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyzed the program and found that 80 percent of SNAP participants are, according to some of the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “in households with a child under age 18, an adult age 60 or older, or an individual who is disabled.”
This statistic is the real kicker: “Children under age 18 constitute 40 percent of all SNAP participants.”
And the crazy part about all of this is that there is $5 billion in emergency funds, as well as “Section 32” funds, that could at least pay for half (+5.2 billion USD) of the 9 billion needed to fulfill November disbursements. It took two lawsuits by 25 states’ attorneys general and a coalition of city governments to file a lawsuit against the Administration after both U.S. District Judge John McConnell and ordered Trump to decide how they will use those emergency funds by Monday, November 3. (The Hill ; NBC News)
This Administration fails to deliver both on their “populist” promise of affordability, but also fails to provide basic services to civilians in need. While more structural reforms are necessary, the people and communities are showing up where it matters, not simple platitudes or broken promises, but tangible support.
