It has been a tumultuous week for the roughly 42 million people across the country who rely on federal food assistance.
Some breathed a tentative sigh of relief Friday afternoon after a Rhode Island judge ordered the Trump administration to keep funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, nationwide.
The Agriculture Department had warned that it would no longer pay for the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, starting Nov. 1 because Congress has failed to pass legislation to fund the government. The judge, however, told the administration it must distribute contingency funding for the program as soon as possible.
But much remains unknown: President Donald Trump said Friday evening on Truth Social that he had “instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.” Even if the federal government issues the funding, many states are already behind schedule, and it’s highly unlikely that anyone who was expecting their SNAP benefits to renew this weekend will get them on time.
After the stressful week they’ve spent rationing food, collecting donations at food banks and preparing their families to survive on less, several SNAP recipients said they’re not yet changing course.
“People still have to figure out ways to do things while this all blows over,” said Danielle Sulton, a single mother of five in Mississippi, who would face an $833 gap without SNAP. She’s picking up gig shifts delivering Amazon packages this weekend to make sure her family doesn’t go without.
“We have been back and forth with Trump,” Sulton said.
In interviews over the last week, 18 SNAP recipients across 11 states — including a preschool teacher, a disabled father, a pregnant mother and a Navy veteran — told NBC News about the painful choices they would have to make if they lost food assistance. Never before have so many households faced the sudden threat that their benefits will be disrupted; the SNAP program has not lapsed during previous government shutdowns.
In Wisconsin, Carmen Hernandez told her four children that they may need to get by on just beans and tortillas. In Mississippi, Valerie Buck collected donations from a food pantry to feed her family of 10. In Indiana, Matthew Corbett, who has $1.04 left in his SNAP account, was prepared to sell his TV for food money.
“Why do I have to pick between paying for day care or paying for a meal for my daughter?” said Lucia Graves, a single mother in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Shrinking meals and growing food pantry lines
The threat of a SNAP cutoff has brought renewed attention to the desperate, day-to-day struggle to make ends meet for America’s most vulnerable people. To qualify, recipients’ incomes must generally be at or below 130% of the federal poverty line — less than $35,000 a year for a family of three. At least 12% of the population relies on this food assistance, including many elderly and disabled people, as well as low-income parents working full or part time.
The federal budget at the heart of the standoff between Republicans and Democrats in Congress includes $186 billion in cuts to SNAP programs over the next decade, the largest funding reductions in the program’s history. Nonprofit organizations have already been straining to fill the gaps amid higher food prices and recent cuts to federal funding by the Trump administration.
Many of the SNAP recipients interviewed said that without their benefits, they would only have enough food for about two or three days before they’d need to turn to charities or put off paying bills.
