Forty-two million people — roughly 1 in 8 Americans — could see cuts or delays to food assistance as soon as Saturday if the government shutdown continues.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes called food stamps, provides money for groceries to low-income Americans. The program distributes over $90 billion in benefits a year and accounts for roughly 9 percent of all grocery spending in the country, according to Agriculture Department estimates.
The federal government says it can’t pay for the program in November due to the government shutdown. On Thursday, though, a federal judge indicated that she was likely to order the Trump administration to release at least some funds for the program. But the released benefits are likely to be delayed, and it’s unclear who will go without part or all of their grocery budget in November.
The program provides money for food to households with low or no income in the previous month. Most people who receive SNAP benefits are children, over 60 years old or adults with disabilities.
In 2023, the most recent year with available data, 20 percent of SNAP recipients had no income in the past month. Nearly all of those who did have an income made less than 130 percent of the poverty level — about $2,900 a month for a family of three in 2025.
“We’re very likely to see people making some really impossible decisions,” said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. “Do you put off paying a utility bill? Skimp on your medication?”
Who could lose food assistance in November?
SNAP usage is higher among households with children, households where an adult has a disability and households living in poverty, according to Census data:
Households under the poverty line
20 in 50 use SNAP
Households where someone has a disability
10 in 50
Households with children
9 in 50
Black, Hispanic and Native American households are also more likely to rely on SNAP:
Black households
12 in 50 use SNAP
Native American households
11 in 50
Hispanic households
9 in 50
Non-Hispanic White households
4 in 50
Missing SNAP benefits could wipe out more than half of those households’ monthly grocery budgets. Agriculture Department research shows that SNAP paid for an average of 63 percent of participants’ groceries. For households with incomes below 50 percent of the poverty line, that share went up to 80 percent.
The impact won’t be felt all at once. SNAP benefits are distributed throughout the month, each state using their own method to determine who receives benefits on which day. The longer the shutdown goes on, the more people will see their benefits reduced, delayed or canceled.
While SNAP usage is most common in lower-income areas, users live in every congressional district in the country. Tens of thousands live in the five highest-income districts in the country, including those that cover Silicon Valley, Northern Virginia, and the upper east and upper west sides of Manhattan.
A potential loss of food assistance on this scale is unprecedented in U.S. history. Smaller groups of people have been pushed out of the program in the past, including immigrants and those who don’t meet work requirements, but the entire program has never been put on hold before, even during government shutdowns.
Georgetown University economist Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, whose research focuses on anti-poverty programs, described SNAP as “the backbone” of the U.S. social safety net for hunger. Other food assistance programs are targeted at much narrower parts of the population, like schoolchildren and victims of recent disasters.
“We’ve never seen the elderly and children removed from the program in this sort of way,” said Schanzenbach, who also sits on the board of directors at a Chicago food bank. “It really is hard to predict something of this magnitude that is unprecedented.”
The federal government, which pays for the program, says it can’t pay for November benefits because Congress did not authorize funds for the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. While the administration took steps to ensure October’s SNAP benefits were paid, a notice on the USDA website declared that “the well has run dry” for November payments.
That leaves states to make up any missing benefits on their own. Lawmakers in a few states such as Louisiana, New Mexico and Vermont voted to partially cover November SNAP benefits with state funds. Other states, including Colorado, Connecticut and Maryland, are funneling extra money to food banks.
But food banks are not equipped to fill the gap. According to Feeding America, a nonprofit network of food banks and food pantries, SNAP usually provides nine meals for every one meal from the nonprofit. And food banks are already under strain after years of rising food prices.
“We’re facing multiple emergencies at the same time,” said Radha Muthiah, CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, which distributes more than 60 million meals a year in the D.C. metro area.
Demand at the food bank has doubled since the pandemic, even before federal workers began to miss paychecks during the government shutdown. Cuts to the federal workforce this year have increased the need for food assistance in the area. Meanwhile, the Trump administration cut $1 billion in funding that helped food banks purchase food from local farmers.
Muthiah says the Capital Area Food Bank will be able to meet about 20 percent of the need in the region if SNAP benefits are lost.
“This is not a distant problem,” Muthiah said. “People you know, people in your neighborhood, people in your metro car will be impacted. Look out for your neighbors if you can.”
