Updated October 27, 2025 at 9:07 AM CDT
By the end of this 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
Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) posted a message on its website blaming Democrats for risking SNAP funding by keeping the government shut down.
"The well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01," it stated. The message goes on to say Democrats "can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance."
Democrats 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. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for the ACA.
Food aid advocates say USDA not only can, but must keep funding SNAP because it's an entitlement program.
"SNAP still has billions of dollars in what are called contingency reserves, that could fund the bulk of what is needed for November benefits," says Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute.
"Situations like this are precisely why Congress provides them."
She says the agency could also legally transfer additional funds, as they've done for the WIC nutrition program.
The USDA rejected both suggestions in a memo Friday. It said contingency funds are "not legally available" to extend regular benefits and are meant only for "natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods." It also said transferring money from other programs would "pull away funding for school meals and infant formula."
The agency's position on contingency funds is a reversal from its original shutdown plans and "utterly without foundation in law," says David Super, a Georgetown University professor who focuses on administrative law. He also argues that USDA has plenty of authority and available funding from other sources to keep supporting both SNAP and the WIC nutrition program.
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 Nov. 1 — the same day their benefits might end. Congressional Republicans passed those changes and others in a tax and spending bill earlier this year, which is expected to push 2.4 million people out of the program over the next decade.
States and food banks are scrambling to help
In a letter Thursday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors 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.
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