New Yorkers say they’re still playing catch-up after a historic two-week disruption in federal food assistance benefits earlier this month.
The Trump administration’s decision to stop Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments during the government shutdown overwhelmed New York City’s food pantries, pushed SNAP recipients to skip meals or stop paying other bills to afford to eat, and suppressed sales at local grocery stores. Now, recipients say they are still feeling the consequences of a benefits break that shattered their trust in the program.
”How can you forget? I'm already preparing myself for when it's going to happen again,” said Alvin Copeland, 64 who received his food benefits late. “The damage is done already.”
In New York City, about 1.8 million people rely on the monthly assistance to afford their groceries. Most recipients are children and older adults. While some already rely on food pantries to patch together enough food to feed their families, others turned to soup kitchens and food banks for the first time, even before benefits stopped Nov. 1.
“Everyone was in a panic because this is unprecedented,” said Eileen Torres, CEO of BronxWorks. “Especially those families that have never utilized a food pantry and now they're trying to sort of desperately find, ‘Where do I go? How, how do I register? Is there a registration process? Do I just stand outside? What exactly do you have? When is it in operation?’”
Food pantries said they were inundated with calls and visits, and some ran out of food. Organizations serving New Yorkers in shelter or with mental illness who rely on SNAP, launched emergency fundraising campaigns and called out for volunteers.
”We had some pantries reporting to us, they saw 300% more people over those two weeks,” said Zac Hall, senior vice president of programs for Food Bank New York City, which provides food for 800 pantries. “That could mean maybe you've used two months more of food that you might not have distributed that month.”
Hall said 20% of their pantries reported having to turn people away because they ran out of food, and some say their shelves are still bare. He added a few emergency food providers reported tensions and conflict in line.
SNAP recipients, meanwhile, were left in limbo amid confusing court battles and shifting orders by the Trump administration on whether they would pay benefits in full, partially or at all during the shutdown. New York state began reissuing benefits on Nov. 9 on a rolling basis, even as the Trump administration continued fighting in court to stop states from distributing assistance.
“What was the point in having people suffer?” said Ashley Miles, 27, who received her benefits late. “ I'm not saying I starved myself, but I did do a bit of fasting to help pass the time so that I'm not eating all of everything that I have because if I kept a normal eating schedule, I probably would've run out of food.”
Miles said she also leaned on the additional free meals provided by Fountain House, a clubhouse that provides community and resources for people with serious mental illness. Fountain House said it provided more than 9,000 meals in the first two weeks of November.
”While everyone is relieved that they have this access to SNAP now it's planted this seed in a lot of folks, not everyone, of will this happen again?” said Ciara Ruddock, program director of the research unit at Fountain House.
“If this is possible, what else is possible? It does really cause a lot of anxiety within the community that you can feel it. It's palpable.”
Advocates say food is intricately tied to health, and older adults were making decisions about whether to take medication that required having food in their stomach and how to get to a pantry if they were homebound.
“Getting there and then transporting any items back home is something many people can't do,” said Katie Foley, managing director of external affairs at Selfhelp, a nonprofit that primarily helps older adults.
SNAP recipient Copeland said he used the money he had saved to pay his phone and utility bill and rent to buy groceries this month. He has his SNAP funds again but he hasn’t used them because his fridge is full of food.
“It threw everything off because the month is almost over soon. I got rent coming up again. Con Ed, cable, phone bill. Now I got to figure out how I'm going to get cash to put everything back on top again,” he said.
Other food advocates said people put their groceries on credit cards.
“Those are things that aren't remedied because SNAP benefits are now in people's pockets,” Hall said. “You can't pay off your credit cards with SNAP dollars. Folks are still underwater in many cases, dealing with the aftermath of this crisis.”
Some grocery store managers told Gothamist they covered some of their customers' expenses, when they could. Some grocers said sales in the beginning of the month dropped 20%-25% and others say they continue to suffer.
Stephen Jones, a grocer on Staten Island, said last week was "kind of dead."
"Maybe some people are holding [SNAP] just to go Thanksgiving shopping,” he said.
Food policy advocates also said even though the SNAP shutoff is over, they’re now concerned about how new work requirements could potentially kick people off the program by March.
