Federal SNAP benefits to expire on Nov. 1, leaving philanthropy scrambling to feed the hungry

‘If the government doesn’t reopen, things are only going to go from bad to worse and to like, really, really worse, very quickly,’ head of the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies says

Published by eJewishPhilanthropy

Soon after the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Long Beach and Orange County (Calif.) realized that funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, would run out by the end of the month. Knowing that people who rely on SNAP would need help from local food banks if that dried up, the agency preemptively doubled its food budget for November.

That decision has proved prescient as the shutdown persists and those SNAP benefits are poised to dry up in two days.

“I think people are going to be surprised if they’re not following the news that all of a sudden, you know, starting on Saturday, there’s nothing left on their card,” Trip Oldfield, CEO of JFCS of Long Beach and Orange County, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “And I think that’s when we’re going to start getting calls.”  

Unless a budget is passed, come Nov. 1, some 42 million Americans could see a pause in SNAP benefits — the food assistance program that provides roughly $190 per person each month. An initiative administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, funding for SNAP depends on annual congressional approval. Amid the ongoing budget impasse, that approval process has been halted. According to experts in Jewish philanthropy, the resulting demand would likely overwhelm existing philanthropic infrastructure. 

“It’s going to create a tremendous burden and strain on the Jewish Family Service system, and we have serious concerns about the agency’s ability to meet this seemingly overnight,” Ruben Rotman, president and CEO at Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, told eJP. 

According to Rotman, with Thanksgiving and the end of the year approaching, it is already a time of increased demand for food pantries. This development will require pantries to stock their shelves quickly, and with more than they usually would. 

“If the government doesn’t reopen, things are only going to go from bad to worse and to like, really, really worse, very quickly,” Rotman said. 

Although many Jewish nonprofits also provide food support to the broader community, some 20% of Jewish families are financially vulnerable, David Goldfarb, senior director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Strategic Health Resource Center, told eJP. That number increases among Holocaust survivors, he added, where 1 in 3 live in poverty and rely on programs like SNAP.

“This is a very, very serious issue,” said Goldfarb. “I think what’s very scary is to think of folks like that and what they might be experiencing. That they might not have food anymore and are being re-traumatized by some of these risks, particularly in light of the current environment in the United States.” 

According to Goldfarb, private philanthropy can’t match the need met by SNAP, which — with an annual budget of more than $100 billion — costs nearly $2 billion a week to sustain. A general rule of thumb, he added, is that for every meal provided by a food pantry, SNAP funds nine. 

“We’re talking about a program that could be a little less than $2 billion a week, when something like JFNA — a top 10 charity — distributes $2 billion for everything we do a year. You can see right there that the size and scope of the problem threatens to overwhelm systems, if not properly addressed,” he said. “The level of funding that would be required is not something that I see the charitable system being able to withhold. Although, of course, I expect people to try to step up and do what they can.”

The government shutdown is causing “double damage,” to SNAP recipients, said Oldfield. Under the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which had already cut 20% of the program, many recipients were already set to lose benefits on Nov. 1 before the shutdown, including refugees, asylees, human trafficking survivors and single parents, veterans, homeless and others who no longer meet stricter work qualifications. 

Various Jewish organizations are responding to the looming deadline. On Monday, JFNA warned in a statement about threats to SNAP benefits. Yesterday, Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger held a press briefing with leading policy experts and a letter-writing campaign where participants demanded that the USDA use its contingency funds to meet the need. The organization is also supporting temples with educational support and moral support as they are the hubs for addressing food insecurity in their communities. 

“In this particular emergency, USDA has the power and actually the legal responsibility, the mandated responsibility, to release contingency funds for SNAP,” Naama Haviv, Mazon’s vice president of community engagement, told eJP. “Those funds are already there. They already exist. The legal mechanism for continuing benefits already exists. So what we don’t need is different, stand-alone legislation. Well, of course, we would welcome any solution. At this moment, we already have the solution, and that solution is in the hands of USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.”

According to Catherine Schneider, Jewish Family Service LA’s chief community engagement officer, many in the Jewish community have volunteered to help. Still, she described it as “unrealistic” for food pantries to meet the demand. 

“It is unrealistic to expect that food pantries are going to make up for the support that currently is coming from the government,” Schneider told eJP. “That just cannot be the strategy, because even if every food pantry would operate at the top of its game, you’re still going to have hungry children.”

Jewish agencies can’t do everything to support those in need because of the halt in benefits, said Oldfield. Neither can food banks or non-Jewish nonprofits. “There’s not going to be one solution. It’s everybody working together to try to plug all the holes and get everyone fed and just make sure that we don’t have a crisis on our hands,” he said.