Journal Editorial: SNAP should never be an optional benefit
As the federal government shutdown drags on, an extraordinary moral breach has emerged in the U.S. safety net – one that is threatening to strip food from the tables of millions, including many of our neighbors right here in Brandon and the surrounding area. The program at the center of the storm is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Roughly 42 million Americans rely on SNAP for the basic resource of food; because of the ongoing funding impasse, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has warned that benefits scheduled for November may not be distributed.
Families already living on the edge face impossible decisions: buying groceries or paying rent, feeding children or filling prescriptions. Experts warn that the consequences could be severe when a program that helps feed one in eight Americans is interrupted. SNAP is not an optional benefit – it is the difference between relative stability and acute crisis for millions.
In addition to sheer numbers, the timing amplifies the harm: November brings colder weather, holiday cost pressures, and for many children, the loss of a consistent monthly food allotment could impair nutrition, wellbeing, and educational performance.
The shutdown stems from unresolved appropriations for fiscal 2026, triggered by partisan division in Congress and a failure to agree on a continuing resolution. The USDA has indicated that its contingency funds are insufficient to cover a full month’s SNAP payments.
Many states have begun sounding alarms: warnings to recipients, emergency state-level efforts to fund shortfalls, and in many cases, uncertainty. Meanwhile, legal action has been initiated by over two-dozen states – not including South Dakota – challenging the federal government’s decision to halt or scale back benefits.
Judges have ruled that the government must continue to fund SNAP insofar as possible, directing the USDA to use contingency funds for at least partial payments. But such decisions, while legally compelling, may still leave millions waiting or receiving less than the full benefit.
What we are witnessing is a failure of governance, cloaked as budgetary urgency. The people hurt by this impasse are not abstract budget‐lines; they are mothers, children, veterans, disabled individuals, people working full-time yet still reliant on SNAP to survive. One recipient quoted in reporting said:
“I work a full‐time job … I can’t make ends meet because of the needs of my children.”
This is not a mistake in the system – it is a foreseeable collapse of the system under partisan gridlock.
Now more than ever, American’s need both sides of the aisle to immediately pass funding that protects critical nutrition programs like SNAP. The trade‐off between governance and starving families is unconscionable.
The executive branch must ensure that contingency and emergency funds are properly deployed to keep aid flowing, regardless of political stalemate.
States should mobilize emergency resources now — from disaster relief funds to food banks — to serve as a buffer while federal funding is secured.
Long‐term reform is needed: ensure that nutrition assistance is insulated from political shutdowns, perhaps via automatic appropriations or statutory protections that decouple essential human services from partisan budget dynamics.
A society that allows millions of its members to go hungry because of a political impasse loses its moral authority to speak of decency and justice. The interruption of SNAP benefits amid the government shutdown is not just a policy failure – it is a crisis of conscience. The measure of a civilization lies not just in the prosperity of its most affluent, but in how it cares for its most vulnerable. Right now, we are failing.As the federal government shutdown drags on, an extraordinary moral breach has emerged in the U.S. safety net – one that is threatening to strip food from the tables of millions, including many of our neighbors right here in Brandon and the surrounding area. The program at the center of the storm is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Roughly 42 million Americans rely on SNAP for the basic resource of food; because of the ongoing funding impasse, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has warned that benefits scheduled for November may not be distributed.
Families already living on the edge face impossible decisions: buying groceries or paying rent, feeding children or filling prescriptions. Experts warn that the consequences could be severe when a program that helps feed one in eight Americans is interrupted. SNAP is not an optional benefit – it is the difference between relative stability and acute crisis for millions.
In addition to sheer numbers, the timing amplifies the harm: November brings colder weather, holiday cost pressures, and for many children, the loss of a consistent monthly food allotment could impair nutrition, wellbeing, and educational performance.
The shutdown stems from unresolved appropriations for fiscal 2026, triggered by partisan division in Congress and a failure to agree on a continuing resolution. The USDA has indicated that its contingency funds are insufficient to cover a full month’s SNAP payments.
Many states have begun sounding alarms: warnings to recipients, emergency state-level efforts to fund shortfalls, and in many cases, uncertainty. Meanwhile, legal action has been initiated by over two-dozen states – not including South Dakota – challenging the federal government’s decision to halt or scale back benefits.
Judges have ruled that the government must continue to fund SNAP insofar as possible, directing the USDA to use contingency funds for at least partial payments. But such decisions, while legally compelling, may still leave millions waiting or receiving less than the full benefit.
What we are witnessing is a failure of governance, cloaked as budgetary urgency. The people hurt by this impasse are not abstract budget‐lines; they are mothers, children, veterans, disabled individuals, people working full-time yet still reliant on SNAP to survive. One recipient quoted in reporting said:
“I work a full‐time job … I can’t make ends meet because of the needs of my children.”
This is not a mistake in the system – it is a foreseeable collapse of the system under partisan gridlock.
Now more than ever, American’s need both sides of the aisle to immediately pass funding that protects critical nutrition programs like SNAP. The trade‐off between governance and starving families is unconscionable.
The executive branch must ensure that contingency and emergency funds are properly deployed to keep aid flowing, regardless of political stalemate.
States should mobilize emergency resources now — from disaster relief funds to food banks — to serve as a buffer while federal funding is secured.
Long‐term reform is needed: ensure that nutrition assistance is insulated from political shutdowns, perhaps via automatic appropriations or statutory protections that decouple essential human services from partisan budget dynamics.
A society that allows millions of its members to go hungry because of a political impasse loses its moral authority to speak of decency and justice. The interruption of SNAP benefits amid the government shutdown is not just a policy failure – it is a crisis of conscience. The measure of a civilization lies not just in the prosperity of its most affluent, but in how it cares for its most vulnerable. Right now, we are failing.
