Natasha McClendon keeps a cabinet in her Englewood home stocked with possible sides, like potatoes and macaroni pasta, to feed her two school-age daughters and disabled husband. But the family has no meat and just ran out of frozen vegetables to make a meal.
The family was due to get about $1,100 next week for groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But they are among the nearly 2 million Illinois residents who will likely have to find another way to buy food or go without as the federal government shutdown stretches into its fourth week.
The SNAP funding cutoff, which will begin Nov. 1 unless Congress or the White House takes action, couldn’t have come at a worse time for McClendon and her husband who were trying to slowly save up to rent a new apartment or even buy their first home. Their landlord said he is doubling their rent from $750 to an unaffordable $1,500.
“Now we got to take this cash that we were going to put into the savings to buy food to make sure that these babies eat,” said McClendon, 49, who works as a substitute teacher assistant for Chicago Public Schools.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded SNAP during the last government shutdown in 2019, but said this time it won’t fund the program using its contingency funding.
Some Republicans, led by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have filed bills in both chambers to fund the program during the shutdown. Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), have also offered their own standalone SNAP patch. Neither effort appeared likely to resolve the issue by Saturday.
Meanwhile, a coalition of Democrat-led states, including Illinois, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, asking a federal court to force the use of emergency funding for SNAP.
The USDA is taking the stance that the contingency funds can only supplement money that has already been appropriated for programs. They say that has not happened since a funding bill was never approved, said Lindsay Allen, a health economist at Northwestern University.
“It’s not that they don’t have the money — they have money,” Allen said. “… But they are saying that their hands are tied here, which is a different interpretation than we’ve seen before.”
Gov. JB Pritzker is also set to sign an executive order Thursday, directing $20 million in state funding to support food banks across Illinois starting Nov. 1. The Illinois Department of Human Services, which administers SNAP, said the state cannot replace the $350 million the state receives each month for the federally funded program.
“SNAP has never been withheld from the American people during a government shutdown until now,” IDHS said in a statement.
McClendon said the government should have provided families like hers more time to prepare for the funding freeze, pointing out that SNAP was not mentioned as being in threat at the start of the shutdown.
“It’s not fair to us to have to suffer because Trump and the Democrats and the Republicans can’t get along,” McClendon said.
Another mother, Aubrey Lewandowski of suburban Palos Hills, says she’s also scrambling after getting a text message that the food support she relies on to help feed her four young children — two of whom have special needs — won’t be coming in November.
Lewandowski, 41, works as a delivery driver and plans to pick up more orders through DoorDash, Instacart and other apps to bump up the $500 to $1,000 she usually makes a week. This will mean more time away from her kids, and even more discipline at the grocery store.
“Especially with children with special needs, I should be enhancing their abilities, doing things with them, not having to have them sit in a car while I drive around,” Lewandowski told WBEZ’s talk show In the Loop. “We have so much wealth here in America … Just seeing how everybody only takes care of their own here, it’s absurd.”
Nearly 31% of Chicagoans in households receiving SNAP benefits were 17 years old or younger, according to an analysis of data from the 2023 American Community Survey.
For her family of five, Lewandowski receives about $1,150 a month in SNAP support. It helps her buy produce and things like eggs and milk — items hard to come by at food pantries — for her children, who are all under 14. She also visits two food pantries regularly, but with the SNAP cutoff, she said she is planning to look for more locations for help.
Food banks can’t meet the need
As food banks and pantries across the region stare down a surge in demand, many say they are doing everything they can to boost capacity.
But even the biggest banks, like the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Northern Illinois Food Bank, say they can’t possibly match the $350 million in SNAP support that flows into Illinois each month.
“For every meal that food banks like us provide, SNAP provides nine,” Nolan Downey, senior director of policy with the food depository, told WBEZ. “We cannot meet this need.”
“My heart will break for the person who will do the grocery shopping on Saturday,” added NIFB President and CEO Julie Yurko. “They will be in the checkout line. They will not know that their SNAP card wasn’t filled, and they will be in the horrific, embarrassing moment where they can’t pay for the basket of groceries.”
Evelyn Figueroa, director of the Pilsen Food Pantry, said her organization has already seen an increase in demand as families stock up in anticipation of the SNAP cutoff. In response, the pantry has added volunteer shifts and is tapping into its emergency reserve to buy more food.
“We’re doing a lot of mental gymnastics, trying to figure out how we’re going to fit more volunteers and fit more food and answer the phone more,” Figueroa said. “I don’t know how long we’ll be able to do that.”
McClendon has gotten information about other pantries she could visit, in addition to the Saint Sabina Catholic Church’s pantry she already visits monthly. But she’s worried she will find long lines and few stocked shelves as the need grows.
The SNAP freeze comes months after the passage of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and policy bill, which makes it more difficult for people to qualify for the benefits starting Dec. 1. For example, the work requirement is extended to those aged 55 to 64, and those who don’t qualify will lose benefits in March. In addition, parents of teens 14 and older are no longer exempt.
Nearly 44% of individuals 16 years or older in households receiving SNAP benefits were already working, according to data from the 2023 American Community Survey.
Approximately 4 million people will lose some or all of their benefits under the new rules, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, changes that Chicago’s Common Pantry Executive Director Margaret O’Conor blasted as “unrealistic” and “inhumane.”
McClendon was busy this week finding the paperwork to submit to SNAP to determine her eligibility. They got a letter from her husband’s doctor, hoping that would be enough to exempt him from new work requirements.
That stress was on top of what she and her husband face as they brainstorm how they will fill the gaps in their budget without SNAP next month. The holidays are around the corner and she wants to buy gifts for her daughters. But each time she goes to the store, she’s surprised by how expensive meat has become.
“This cut to the SNAP benefit, it’s going to hurt,” McClendon said. “It’s hurting me already, so I’m imagining what’s going to happen to other people.”
Community groups stepping in to help
In anticipation of the SNAP funding cutoff, a monthly sandwich club based out of a yoga studio in Avondale on the North Side added a food drive last weekend. The Groove Chicago made 621 sandwiches and distributed them to community “Love Fridges” in Hermosa and Humboldt Park, said Gabriela Estrada, the studio owner.
They plan to meet again on Sunday to make more sandwiches and collect more food to distribute in the area and to other groups, such as Gyrls In The H.O.O.D., on the South Side.
“The idea behind sandwich club is to normalize giving back,” Estrada said. “I think that it’s just really important for us to continue normalizing showing up for our communities now, and … beyond whatever is going on.”
The Night Ministry intends to increase the food it distributes across Chicago by coordinating with food pantries and other groups, said Carol Sharp, president and CEO. They also issued a call out for grocery store gift cards to hand out.
“It’s one thing to know that you can anticipate these funds in several weeks or in the next month, but it’s a different mindset, a different level of survival that activates when you’re not clear about where your next meal will come from,” Sharp said.
In Albany Park and West Ridge, the Friendship Center pantry urged community members to volunteer and donate to their local food pantry, said Lauren Diaz, the director of development.
“I would highlight how resilient Chicago is and that neighbors really care for each other,” Diaz said. “We want to continue to see that through these obstacles that we’re facing in the city.”
Contributing: Alden Loury