The Feed My People Food Bank in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has been preparing for a freeze of federal food benefits since the start of the government shutdown on Oct. 1.
Padraig Gallagher, the food bank’s executive director told his team to source as much food as possible, just in case the shutdown dragged on long enough to affect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which more than 10% of Americans use.
“I went to our food resource and warehouse transportation managers and I said, ‘Let’s open the floodgates. Let’s fill the warehouse to the rafters,’” Gallagher said.
Now he’s glad he did. SNAP recipients will not receive money to buy food in November, thanks to the ongoing shutdown. Food bank directors across the Midwest and Great Plains like Gallagher expect a surge in demand for their services. But they caution that food banks alone will not be able to fill a gap left by SNAP.
“We do feel confident that we can increase the amount of food beyond what we’re currently getting,” Gallagher said. “We do not have confidence that we can get enough food to offset what is being lost,” Gallagher said.
Finding more food
This would be the first time that SNAP recipients face a lapse in benefits because of a government shutdown. Celia Cole, who leads the statewide food bank group Feeding Texas, said she’s treating it “like any major disaster.”
“Food banks are no stranger to disaster,” said Cole. “We have been responding to natural disasters, economic disasters, political crises like this one for decades. And so we know how to prepare.”
But the loss of SNAP is a major stressor to a food security system that’s already stretched thin.
The federal government expanded SNAP eligibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. But after those extra benefits ended in 2023, food banks saw a jump in demand that hasn’t gone down, according to Jen Lamplough, chief impact officer at the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
“In March of 2023, when the very last of the pandemic benefits went away…we saw an increase of 100,000 neighbors that month,” Lamplough said.
Food banks rely on private donations, philanthropy and government support to stock their shelves. Lamplough has spent the past few weeks pressing her network for more resources before SNAP funding expires.
“We’ve been trying to fundraise for more food, talking to our food donors, talking to other donors, about how we might be able to meet this need,” she said.
Food banks can generally get items for relatively cheap by buying in bulk from wholesalers. Sophia Lenarz Coy, executive director of The Food Group, a food bank and advocacy group in Minnesota, said that her suppliers were already seeing high demand.
“Some of the national wholesalers, they are seeing a lot of food banks reaching out right now to try to procure some of those staple food products,” Lenarz Coy said. “So if there continues to be a ton of pressure, we may see some supply chain issues on some of those staples.”
She stressed that there’s no way for food banks alone to meet the needs of all SNAP recipients in November.
For every meal provided by a food bank, SNAP provides nine, according to Feeding America. Most of those are consumed by children, elderly people or people with a disability.
“There's going to be negative ripple effects if these benefits don't hit for families, and not only for the local economies,” Lenarz Coy said. “Long-term health outcomes, school attendance, chronic disease, all sorts of things."
Relief on the way?
Some state governments are trying to make up for the loss of federal benefits.
Minnesota will put up $4 million to support the state’s food banks. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, declared a state of emergency in order to use state funds for SNAP recipients.
Private companies have also donated to help meet the need. Texas grocer H-E-B pledged $5 million to Feeding Texas in October, and another $1 million to Meals on Wheels. Hy-Vee will give $100,000 to Feeding America. And the Iowa Pork Producers Association plans to give 9,500 pounds of pork to Iowa food banks.
But the only legitimate long-term fix, according to food bank managers, is to fund SNAP.
“It’s going to throw so many people into a situation where they’re not going to have enough money for food and they’re going to be coming for us,” said Lamplough in Illinois. “And for us to try to meet that need is virtually impossible.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has about $5 billion in a contingency fund that would cover some of the cost of SNAP for November. But the Trump administration does not plan to use it, stating in a memo obtained by Axios that the funds are reserved for natural disasters and other nutrition programs.
“For example, Hurricane Melissa is currently swirling in the Caribbean and could reach Florida. Having funds readily available allows the [USDA] to mobilize quickly in the days and weeks following a disaster,” the memo said.
A group of Democratic governors and attorneys general from 25 states recently sued to force the Trump administration to use the reserve dollars.
Tiffany Murray, chief operating officer for the Food Bank of Lincoln in Nebraska, has received calls “every minute of the day” from people and groups who want to donate to her group.
“We’ve definitely seen people come to the table and they’re asking the right questions,” Murray said. “How do we help? What do you need? And how do we show up for our neighbors in Nebraska?”
She says seeing people step up to help feed their community has been heartening, and the best way to support local food banks is by donating cash.
“We have the ability through sort of bulk purchasing and different things like that to stretch a dollar a bit further,” Murray said.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
