As SNAP benefits stall during the shutdown, families face food insecurity and mounting holiday stress.
But as Americans prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, the relieved gratitude of families in Williams’ community, and the many others still recovering from the suspension of government paychecks and food assistance during the 43-day shutdown, is tempered by lingering stress and economic insecurity.
“I’m thankful for my children and my job, and I’m thankful for SNAP because it supplies food,” said Williams, 32, who works as a paraprofessional in an elementary school. “But … with the way the world is, with the financial strain, it is hard to be thankful.”
The anxiety stirred by the shutdown persists in the lines at food pantries in this southwestern Missouri county and echoes through households nationwide.
In South Florida, Darlene Castillo is still struggling to prop up her family’s fragile finances after working without pay for seven weeks at the U.S. Customs Service.
To get by, she lined up at a mobile food bank, a first for her. She held off paying bills and canceled subscriptions. Family members sent money, and when one extended an invitation for Thanksgiving, she and her husband gratefully accepted, knowing that they’d be hard-pressed to host the holiday meal.“It’s a thankful time,” Castillo said last week. “I’ll bring a dish because hopefully this week we’ll get paid.
And then we’ll worry about Jan. 30.”
That’s when the funds just approved by Congress to reopen the government are set to run out, threatening yet another shutdown.
In New Jersey, Kelvin McNeil is equally mindful that restored Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits could again be taken away.
During the shutdown, McNeil said he got by on the modest stipend he receives as a trainee in a culinary program run by the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. But attending classes meant missing the hours food pantries were open. His wife, who is disabled and counts on him to bring home SNAP-funded groceries, grew distraught.
“If it was any longer, I don’t know what I would’ve done,” said McNeil, whose relief is compounded by news that after months of radiation treatment, his prostate cancer is in remission. “I got a lot to be thankful for right now.”The pressure of trying to get through November without SNAP weighed on Williams in the weeks leading up to the holiday.
She had planned the move to the new apartment for months, carefully balancing income and expenses to account for the $600 rent. The math worked thanks in no small part to $450 in monthly benefits her family receives from SNAP. That covers their food bill after the two free meals served each school day.
As the shutdown stretched on, the Trump administration announced it would suspend November SNAP payments, despite judges’ orders to use available emergency funds. With her move days away, Williams started November with just $25 left in her SNAP account.She used the funds to buy bread, peanut butter, jelly and milk, and a friend with chickens gave her eggs. The fixings lasted through four nights of sandwich dinners. Then her parents stepped in to help.
Williams tried to keep her stress hidden from her 11-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. But it was hard to avoid tearing up or getting angry.
“What bills do I not pay so I can feed my children, because that’s the priority,” she said.
