Aid interruption turns chronic hunger into an acute crisis

Many food pantries won't be able to meet the explosion of need as the government withholds SNAP benefits

- LEAH E. GOSE GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

DANIEL ACKER Bloomberg SNAP FOOD AID has been a lifeline not only for hungry families but also for local businesses.

"I HOPE THIS is going to be enough," said the coordinator at Silver Lake Community Church food pantry, wiping her forehead as she chopped off bad ends of donated celery. Every Wednesday morning for the past year, I, along with a dozen or so other volunteers, sort and pack donated food for about 150 families.

But a few months ago, the food pantry started ordering enough food to feed 175 households a week. This week we ordered enough for 200 families. Higher numbers are our new normal. The people who come to us are facing challenges not just from the federal shutdown but also from widespread layoffs.

Now, as SNAP benefits run out during the shutdown, we worry that there won't be enough food to feed everyone who lines up. And that should scare all of us.

Across the nation, 1 in 7 people — including 1 in 5 children — were food insecure in 2023. This means they worried about where they would get food and struggled to afford to put food on the table.

For decades, the U.S. government has responded to our relentless food insecurity crisis through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps — which in 2024 were distributed to 1 in 8 people. On average, beneficiaries in California — where the program is called CalFresh — received about $189 a month. In L.A. County, more than $300 million in SNAP benefits were issued in June 2025 alone.

SNAP is an incredibly effective tool to fight hunger. It reaches people all over the nation, even in hard-to-reach rural areas, because the benefits go directly to people's wallets. The program lifted more than 700,000 people nationally above the poverty line in 2024.