"Imagine going into a grocery store picking out all the food for you and or your family and realizing you do not have enough money to pay. Well, this is the reality for many families, especially during the government shutdown." Adela Orozco 6th grade
Imagine going into a grocery store picking out all the food for you and or your family and realizing you do not have enough money to pay. Well, this is the reality for many families, especially during the government shutdown.
On October 1st, the Federal Government was unable to agree on a budget, causing the closures of critical government departments.
These programs include The Department of Agriculture—which manages one of the most critical anti-poverty programs called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). It’s most commonly known in California as Calfresh. Since the federal government shut down it meant that SNAP will not receive any money, and that means people did not get the benefits they needed to get food.
SNAP is a program that provides food benefits to those with low-income, or who qualify because they are disabled. According to The New York Times, in the US, 42 million people are on SNAP. In California 5.5 million people are on SNAP.
There have been many far-reaching impacts as well as opinions about this shutdown. “It sucks because it has been affecting TSA workers and/or people that work at the airport and are not getting paid and people need to get paid to live,” said AJ Jimenez Morales an 8th Grader in Literary Arts.
So what does this mean for the people of Alameda County?
According to the Alameda County Community Food Bank’s (ACCFB) website, on November 1st, 180,000 community members did not receive their SNAP benefits or only received partial benefits. That meant that many people went hungry.
Maria Gutierrez, who is an outreach associate at the Alameda County Community Food Bank described a story about a grandmother who called in because she was worried about how she was going to feed her grandchildren. “… there was a grandmother who was heavily relying on the SNAP benefits, she was taking care of her two grandchildren, school aged, and with the pause of the SNAP benefits, she was worried because she is also disabled and she cannot move to pick up food in her community.” Gutierrez continued, “She’s not only worried about herself but also worried about how she’s gonna get to feed her grandchildren.”
It’s not just the cuts that are making life harder for SNAP recipients. SNAP recipients were already feeling threatened because of the Trump Administration. Which has been demanding that states turn over their personal information. The federal government says that they are concerned about fraud and abuse, though historically levels of fraud are very low within SNAP. Immigrant families are even more concerned because they could be in danger of deportation. Undocumented people are not eligible for SNAP but US citizen members of the families may qualify, and therefore they benefit from it.
Arlan Murrillo, the director of the SNAP program at the Alameda Count Community Food Bank, is concerned about the cuts. “All the cuts and SNAP being a huge subject right now, people are feeling targeted, maybe attacked, there’s shame involved and they’re embarrassed.” he continues, “We’ve actually had a few cases of people calling asking how they can cancel even though they qualify.”
Now imagine similar stories and concerns repeated 180,000 times throughout Alameda County, 5.5 million times across California, and 42 million times across the country.
OSA students and staff have also been affected by this issue.
“My parents would use SNAP because we were going through financial trouble, and we would depend on it, we would sign up for it and use it every month. It would help us have food so we could have a meal on our plate,”said 7th Grade Literary Arts student Paloma Bastos.
“I know a lot of people that have been on SNAP and… it feeds a lot of people and it helps so many people have food. And it absolutely helps a lot of people and it is very important," said Gladys Chavez from OSA's Finance Department.
Even though on November 12th the government shutdown ended, it still feels like the aftershock of an earthquake for many SNAP recipients. The SNAP program is facing serious cuts that are coming due to HR1 (Big Beautiful Bill) which passed on July 4th.
If you or someone you know needs help getting food, call 1-510-635-3663 or visit https://www.foodnow.net/food-today/.
On October 1st, the Federal Government was unable to agree on a budget, causing the closures of critical government departments.
These programs include The Department of Agriculture—which manages one of the most critical anti-poverty programs called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). It’s most commonly known in California as Calfresh. Since the federal government shut down it meant that SNAP will not receive any money, and that means people did not get the benefits they needed to get food.
SNAP is a program that provides food benefits to those with low-income, or who qualify because they are disabled. According to The New York Times, in the US, 42 million people are on SNAP. In California 5.5 million people are on SNAP.
There have been many far-reaching impacts as well as opinions about this shutdown. “It sucks because it has been affecting TSA workers and/or people that work at the airport and are not getting paid and people need to get paid to live,” said AJ Jimenez Morales an 8th Grader in Literary Arts.
So what does this mean for the people of Alameda County?
According to the Alameda County Community Food Bank’s (ACCFB) website, on November 1st, 180,000 community members did not receive their SNAP benefits or only received partial benefits. That meant that many people went hungry.
Maria Gutierrez, who is an outreach associate at the Alameda County Community Food Bank described a story about a grandmother who called in because she was worried about how she was going to feed her grandchildren. “… there was a grandmother who was heavily relying on the SNAP benefits, she was taking care of her two grandchildren, school aged, and with the pause of the SNAP benefits, she was worried because she is also disabled and she cannot move to pick up food in her community.” Gutierrez continued, “She’s not only worried about herself but also worried about how she’s gonna get to feed her grandchildren.”
It’s not just the cuts that are making life harder for SNAP recipients. SNAP recipients were already feeling threatened because of the Trump Administration. Which has been demanding that states turn over their personal information. The federal government says that they are concerned about fraud and abuse, though historically levels of fraud are very low within SNAP. Immigrant families are even more concerned because they could be in danger of deportation. Undocumented people are not eligible for SNAP but US citizen members of the families may qualify, and therefore they benefit from it.
Arlan Murrillo, the director of the SNAP program at the Alameda Count Community Food Bank, is concerned about the cuts. “All the cuts and SNAP being a huge subject right now, people are feeling targeted, maybe attacked, there’s shame involved and they’re embarrassed.” he continues, “We’ve actually had a few cases of people calling asking how they can cancel even though they qualify.”
Now imagine similar stories and concerns repeated 180,000 times throughout Alameda County, 5.5 million times across California, and 42 million times across the country.
OSA students and staff have also been affected by this issue.
“My parents would use SNAP because we were going through financial trouble, and we would depend on it, we would sign up for it and use it every month. It would help us have food so we could have a meal on our plate,”said 7th Grade Literary Arts student Paloma Bastos.
“I know a lot of people that have been on SNAP and… it feeds a lot of people and it helps so many people have food. And it absolutely helps a lot of people and it is very important," said Gladys Chavez from OSA's Finance Department.
Even though on November 12th the government shutdown ended, it still feels like the aftershock of an earthquake for many SNAP recipients. The SNAP program is facing serious cuts that are coming due to HR1 (Big Beautiful Bill) which passed on July 4th.
If you or someone you know needs help getting food, call 1-510-635-3663 or visit https://www.foodnow.net/food-today/.
