Rising hunger will continue long after the federal government reopens. “You can’t magically go back to a previous time and everything will feel normal.”
Denver food banks surge as SNAP benefits are suspended
The Food Bank of the Rockies in Denver is experiencing increased demand as SNAP recipients seek assistance as food assistance benefits expire.
The Missoula Food Bank and Community Center in Montana will double its grocery orders in the first two weeks of November and spend “far more than” this month’s budget to keep up with the influx of requests, executive director Amy Allison said.
Six other food banks across the country told USA TODAY similar stories. It has cut significant holes in its budget over the past six weeks as it tries to meet demands caused by the federal government shutdown. At the same time, layoffs and price increases were occurring, and the number of people seeking help was already increasing.
And now they’re pleading with all the donors already on their list to donate what they can for the rest of the year.
“The impact is going to be huge, and I don’t think we even fully understand it yet,” Allison said.
Food banks said they expect the effects of the shutdown to last for months, even if the federal government reopens Thursday night.
Payments will soon resume to tens of millions of federal food assistance recipients and paychecks to hundreds of thousands of federal workers. But Linda Nagiotto, president and chief operating officer of Feeding America, which provides millions of food meals to organizations across the country, said those people have depleted the savings they had built up during the 43-day shutdown.
She said it will be a long time before people feel financially secure enough to stop using food banks..
“The government may have reopened, but the effects are not like a light switch. We can’t magically go back to before and everything will feel normal,” she said. “For those whose lives have been severely disrupted, it will take time for their neighbors to be able to equalize their finances while more paychecks are coming.”
“There is no proof at this time.”
When the Department of Agriculture announced in late October that the “well ran dry” and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits would run out in November, it marked the first time in the program’s more than 60-year history that federal food security had not been achieved.
Cindy Kirkhart, CEO of Facing Hunger Food Bank in Huntington, West Virginia, said the termination of SNAP benefits shocked people who believed the government would provide a safety net.
“The only certainty people had for a long time was that no matter what else happened, we would be able to receive SNAP benefits and be able to support our families. There is no certainty now. I don’t have that,” she said. “When you shake people up, it takes them a long time to recover.”
She plans to act as if the benefits never arrived until they actually arrive on her EBT card (the debit card facsimile used by SNAP recipients). Her food bank typically distributes 1 million pounds of food a month. This amount was distributed in the first week of November alone.
She said the only reason the food bank was able to survive was because the governor sent money and the National Guard sent aid.
Some may be wary of the next funding deadline set by Congress in less than three months.
The Reopen Government Act would provide some funding to the federal government for almost a full year and would also provide funding to the Department of Agriculture through September 2026.
Therefore, SNAP benefits would be protected from possible budget lapses for at least one year. But tens of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed or put back to work without pay if the government shuts down again amid a surge in layoffs across the country.
“If I was someone who had been exposed to all of that, I would have had a lot of disbelief at this point,” said Gail Carlson, president and CEO of the Montana Food Bank Network.
Carlson said people have had to juggle paying mortgages, utilities and other bills for more than a month, and it will take time to feel settled again.
“People still need to eat, so they will continue to rely on food pantries until things stabilize,” she says.
In a typical week, her food bank distributes about 350,000 pounds of food. During the shutdown, there were days when we distributed that amount.
Carlson expects high demand to continue at least through the end of the year. “Maybe we’ll see some decline in January. We’ll have to see how that goes,” she said.
Growing food insecurity
Jilly Stevens of City Harvest in New York City said food banks and pantries were already in huge demand before the closures, as inflation has increased food prices and the overall cost of living has increased.
In 2019, City Harvest food pantries received 25 million visits, she said. By 2024, the number will nearly double to 47 million
“Now this is layered on top of that. It’s an incredible setback,” she said of the closure.
On average, about 14% of U.S. households reported food insecurity from January to October, up from 12.5% in 2024, according to the latest data from Purdue’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability. The overall rate has declined since the height of the pandemic in 2022, when an average of 15.4% of households were food insecure.
Purdue University researchers define food insecurity as the inability of some members of a household to obtain a balanced diet and may have to skip meals or eat less for financial reasons.
Purdue’s study is one of the few remaining national responses to food insecurity after the U.S. Department of Agriculture discontinued its annual Household Food Security Survey, which it had conducted since 2001, in September. The USDA said in September that the investigation was “redundant, expensive, politicized and irrelevant.”
Food banks and pantries were also dealing with more than $1 billion in federal funding cuts and moratoriums made by the Department of Agriculture in the spring as part of Elon Musk’s Government Efficiency Department’s government cuts.
The USDA has suspended half of its funding, or $500 million, for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, a nutrition program that buys food from American farmers for emergency food providers. Some of the funds were later restored.
When that funding was cut, the Missoula food bank lost 40 percent of what it was supposed to receive that year, or about 91,000 pounds of food. Allison said it cost about $200,000 to replace that much food. Other food banks provided similar numbers.
USDA also discontinued the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which helps food banks buy fresh produce directly from local farmers. This year, it will provide approximately $500 million in funding to food banks.
“We were struggling with food, but when you reduce food and increase demand, it’s just a recipe for failure,” said Kirkhart, from West Virginia. “Even with the pandemic, there has been nothing like what we have experienced since the first half of October.”
“A challenge yet to be tried”
Feeding America’s Nagiotto said changes to the SNAP program enacted this summer under the Republican tax and spending bill will pose “untested challenges” to the charitable food system.
When the new work requirements go into effect in early November, the Congressional Budget Office estimates there will be 2.4 million fewer people participating in SNAP.
For the first time in the program’s history, starting in 2028, states with payment error rates above 6% will be required to contribute to SNAP benefits. The error rate in 2024 was approximately 11% nationally.
“As these changes roll out, we know that more people will lose their SNAP benefits and will have to rely more heavily on the charitable food system. So we’re very concerned about that,” Najot said. “People across the country will lose the benefits that have kept food on the table and face uncertainty once again.”
community support
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the nation’s loose network of food banks and pantries is no substitute for federal food assistance. He and more than 20 other states have sued the Trump administration for full SNAP benefits for November.
“SNAP is a way for Americans to help feed other Americans, food shelves, and other people who are doing great work, and they can’t close this gap on their own,” he said.
Allison said community support gave the Missoula Food Bank a buffer to get through the holiday season. Still, she worries about whether she will make it in time for the fiscal year end in June.
She said the Missoula community needs to continue to participate and financially support the food bank through fresh produce, including dairy and protein, in the coming months.
“I think food banks in general, and certainly for ourselves, need to continue to see people in our communities involved as much as possible,” she said.
Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY’s senior national political correspondent, can be reached at swire@usatoday.com.
