In a move that advocates call potentially “catastrophic,” President Donald Trump’s administration plans to withhold food stamp funding if the federal government shutdown is not resolved by the end of October, leaving 1.9 million people across Illinois in peril.
The Illinois Department of Human Services announced Thursday it received notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the federal agency would not fund November benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP, across the country starting Nov. 1 unless there’s a resolution to the shutdown.
For Illinois, that would mean a loss of $350 million the state administers to recipients.
“If SNAP funds are not delivered by the federal government, the State of Illinois does not have the budgetary ability to backfill these critical resources,” the state agency said in a statement.
The program provides prepaid cards to 40 million people across the United States to buy groceries.
Officials in New Mexico have questioned whether the program is out of money or if the funding pause is being used as a negotiating tactic, the Associated Press reported. The notice the USDA sent to states said the agency had insufficient funds to pay for November benefits, Axios reported.
About 45% of SNAP recipients include households with children, according to state officials.
Gov. JB Pritzker said families would go without food because Trump and Republicans refuse to reach a compromise.
“Why is it that they can find the money during a shutdown to pay their masked federal agents wreaking havoc in our communities but not help people in need put food on the table,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Trump promised to lower costs but that’s not happening — the very least they could do is preserve SNAP access for low-income families struggling to feed their kids.”
Even before this week’s announcement, food pantries had been bracing for longer lines because of expected changes to social programs like Medicaid, a public health insurance program, and SNAP after Trump succeeded in passing a sweeping tax and policy bill this summer. Those cuts to Medicaid are at the center of the government shutdown fight, with Democrats pushing for the proposed cuts to be reversed.
“But for everyone to lose benefits, it’s more than catastrophic,” said Mitzi Baum, chief executive officer of the Nourishing Hope food pantries in Chicago. “Whether we’ll be able to absorb the impact of that is to be seen.”
Families received SNAP benefits for October, and there didn’t initially appear to be any disruption to the program, said Man-Yee Lee, spokesperson for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
But now families should prepare a “plan B” if SNAP benefits are paused for the foreseeable future, Lee said, urging people to find their nearest food pantry by going online to chicagosfoodbank.org/find-food-2/.
“We are seriously worried about if this shutdown continues to go on, the longer it goes, the more people and the more hardship and hunger this is going to create in our communities,” Lee said.
Food banks and pantries will be the first place people turn, and the city’s network of pantries are preparing for an influx in demand, Lee said.
At Nourishing Hope, about 30% of the people they serve through their food pantries also receive SNAP benefits, Baum said. The organization is looking at getting more food donations, changing distribution hours and promoting its pick-up services.
Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign in Chicago is also impacting operations at Nourishing Hope. The presence of federal immigration agents has been visible in all the neighborhoods where their pantries are located, Baum said. The increase in immigration arrests is one of the reasons why they are piloting a home delivery program for families who fear interacting with federal agents.
“We’re a very lean organization, and it’s very difficult to maintain such a high level of service and need and under stress and threat of ICE regularly,” Baum said.
The increase in demand has even exceeded the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee said, and can be attributed to increased food prices and housing costs and rising utility bills.
Programs like SNAP play a crucial role in the movement to end hunger, and charities can’t fill the gap alone, Lee said.
“We are the emergency food system, and we are here to assist anybody in need during times of emergency,” Lee said. “Charities and organizations, like the food depository and our partner pantries, were never designed to be set up to solve hunger alone and safety-net programs like SNAP and WIC really need to exist and continue to be available to our neighbors in need.”