Food Banks: Without SNAP, We Can't Handle The Demand

By Zach Rodvold, Minnesota Reformer

November 5, 2025

With the ongoing federal government shutdown now threatening to disrupt food assistance, Americans are finally learning why the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is as critical as Social Security, Medicare, and other so-called entitlement programs.

Food banks and food shelves have long championed SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, as the nation’s largest and most-effective hunger relief program. An entire wall in our 230,000 square foot warehouse is dedicated to showcasing the program’s scale (for every meal a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine), and impact (every $1 in SNAP spending generates $1.50 in local economic activity). It’s often the first stop on tours of our food bank.

SNAP helps 42 million Americans — and more than 440,000 Minnesotans — afford groceries. In an average month, SNAP pays out $72 million in benefits in Minnesota alone — money which is spent at grocery stores and food retailers, accounting for roughly 12% of total retail revenue, according to the National Grocers Association.

Over half of SNAP participants are either seniors or children, and fewer than 5% of SNAP participants are able-bodied adults without children.

In Minnesota, half of all SNAP participants live outside of the Twin Cities metro area.

These facts were well known within the hunger-relief community, but due to the federal government shutdown and the prospect that, for the first time in history, SNAP benefits will not be paid out, they are now becoming known to the broader public. It’s about time.

As the cost of food has increased, especially over the past five years, fewer and fewer people are able to afford it, which is where SNAP comes in. SNAP provides critical, temporary food assistance that gives people time to get back on their feet without worrying about where their next meal will come from.

Unfortunately, the program is under threat and anxiety is rising.

President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July Fourth. The law includes the largest-ever cuts to SNAP, totaling nearly $200 billion over the next ten years — roughly 20%. These cuts were achieved in large part by shifting the cost burden for this federal program onto states and counties, many of which have already announced property tax hikes in response — further exacerbating the ongoing affordability crisis. The bill also eliminates or reduces benefits for many older Americans, veterans, parents, eligible immigrants and unhoused people.

Feeding America estimates that the cuts to SNAP in the OBBBA will lead to a loss of about 6 billion meals every year going forward. To put that in context, the entire Feeding America network of 200+ food banks —which includes Second Harvest Heartland, the nation’s second-largest food bank — distributed the equivalent of 6.5 billion meals last year. This alone would have further strained our system to the breaking point, creating a dramatic increase in food insecurity here and around the country. Fast forward a few months, and things are even worse.

When the federal government shut down on October 1, food banks and food shelves were not immediately impacted. The Trump administration’s decision to fund the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children kept a lid on food insecurity. Hope was high that a bipartisan compromise would be found before the real pain of an extended shutdown set in.

That hope quickly turned to despair.

After initially indicating that SNAP benefits would continue largely uninterrupted, as has been the case in every previous federal government shutdown, the USDA sent a letter to states on October 10 advising that they would not pay out benefits in November. In response, 25 states, including Minnesota, sued the USDA, arguing that they were required by law to use the $5 billion in contingency funding appropriated by Congress. On October 31, two federal judges ruled in separate decisions that the USDA must release those funds, but as of this writing, it is unclear whether they will comply— and how quickly funds could be released if they do.

The impact of even a temporary delay cannot be understated.

No one is getting wealthy off SNAP; the program provides an average of less than $6 per person per day in Minnesota, for a total monthly benefit shy of $180. But when times are tight and you are deciding between food and utilities or rent, that extra help is a lifesaver. Without it, there is nowhere to turn but your local food shelf — and food shelves simply cannot do more with less.

With all the attention on SNAP, our hope is that political leaders — including those who voted to cut the program but are now singing its praises — will rally in bipartisan fashion to not only ensure it is fully funded during the shutdown but that it is strengthened and expanded into the future.

After all, hunger does not discriminate by party, and everyone needs to eat.

Congress can and should do more to make sure everyone can afford to.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..