USDA secretary: SNAP recipients set to receive food payments by Monday at latest

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — As states across the country scramble to issue the full SNAP benefits that nearly 42 million nationwide and 2.9 million in the Sunshine State depend upon, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins said Thursday that most recipients will receive their payments by Monday at the latest.

Although the restoration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after the 43-day government shutdown will provide relief, many people are still likely to experience food insecurity afterward, according to a local nonprofit leader.

Single widowed mother Jen Hall, who is a SNAP recipient, described the past month as “challenging” as she struggled to put food on the table for her and her 14-year-old son.

Even before the government shutdown, however, Hall says her SNAP benefits were shrinking. In order to be deemed eligible for SNAP, she has to recertify every six months. But the last time she recertified prior to the shutdown, her monthly allowance dropped from around $160 to just $24 a month.

“It was a challenge to not know when things are coming,” Hall says. “We’ve got the holidays coming up. There’s lots of things coming up, but also, every day people need to eat.”

Hall is permanently disabled and still grieving the loss of her husband, who passed away last year because of health complications following a workplace incident in 2022.

She says that her husband’s lack of adequate healthcare contributed to his death, which is why she firmly believes that food and healthcare are two basic human rights to which everybody should have access.

“When we’re looking at the government shutdown, it’s important to frame that as the choice was people dying from lack of healthcare or people going hungry, and both of those are lose-lose situations, and I happen to be one of those people who sits on both sides of those,” Hall says. “My husband died from lack of adequate healthcare. I would die if I lost health insurance, and I have no idea how I am going to continue to feed my son and I.”

Hall was in a car accident that left her permanently disabled years ago. Today, she relies on Medicare and Medicaid to get care. She says she has not been able to find a job because of the nature of her medical conditions.

“The other concern is that if I do attempt employment, there’s a good chance I will lose my health insurance, and without my health insurance, I will die,” she says.

During the shutdown, Hall sought help from the Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka, which provides an emergency food pantry to community members in need, including SNAP recipients like her.

Central Florida nonprofits like the Hope CommUnity Center are still short on food donations, leaders say.

“Food insecurity is even larger than what it was during the (COVID-19) pandemic,” Hope CommUnity Center Executive Director Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet says.

The increase in demand was exacerbated by recent federal cuts that forced them to be entirely dependent on donations from local churches and other nonprofits, he says.

The most demand Sousa-Lazaballet has seen comes from Social Security recipients and single mothers like Hall, he says.

“The majority of the people that we’re supporting are actually U.S. citizens who are in incredible need, and it is incredibly sad that in the richest country in the world, people are going hungry right now,” he says.

Sousa-Lazaballet is encouraging people to donate to local food drives or to nonprofits within their communities to help nonprofits fill the food insecurity gaps.