Nearly 42 million people in danger as federal government shutdown continues and Snap funding to end 1 November

Two decades ago, Sara Carlson, then a mother of three, was newly single because of a traumatic event, and the US’s food stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), helped her feed her children with free food supplies.

“I wouldn’t have been able to afford to live,” said Carlson, 45, who lives in Rochester, Minnesota, and now works as an operations manager for a wealth-management firm and serves on the board of Channel One Regional Food Bank, which works to increase food access.

While the food stamps helped her, the government cut her off after a couple years because she started making too much money, which meant she again had to worry about having enough food.

Now, nearly 42 million people around the country could face the same fate if the federal government shutdown continues and funding for Snap is cut off on 1 November.

  • Pringles@sopuli.xyz
    111·
    4 days ago

    Brittany, a 38-year-old mother of three, lives in Greenup, Kentucky, and works 35 to 40 hours each week as a home health nurse.

    She also has received Snap benefits for a few years.

    “It’s not like I receive benefits and not work,” said Brittany, pushing back against the misconception that people who receive food stamps just sit on the couch.

    They allow her to get “most of the necessities throughout the month and then I just pay cash for the rest of them”, said Brittany, who did not want her last name used.

    If the Snap funding is cut off, she said, she would have to work on the weekends to make up the difference, which would mean she would have “hardly any time with my children”.

    Still, she supports Trump and blames Democrats for the shutdown because “they are not agreeing on anything that the Republicans offer”.

    And this right here is a record breaking amount of cognitive dissonance.