CANTON, Ohio — As demand for food assistance continues to rise across her community, Stephanie Sweany, executive director of the Stark County Hunger Task Force, said the situation feels all too familiar.
“I was here through COVID. And I would kind of compare the need and sort of the desperation that people are feeling, and the uncertainty that people are feeling, to COVID,” she said.
Sweany has watched as the federal government shutdown led to the suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this month, putting greater pressure on food banks already stretched thin by earlier federal cuts. As the matter pinballed through the courts, the standoff between the federal government and the states over SNAP deepened, even as a deal to fund the government appeared close.
On Nov. 9, the Trump administration ordered states to “immediately undo” any “unauthorized” SNAP payments for the month. At the same time, progress toward ending the shutdown emerged when eight Democratic senators joined Republicans in backing a plan to break the weeks-long deadlock. The proposal would reopen the government, restore funding for SNAP and other programs and guarantee back pay for furloughed workers, but it leaves out the expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting to preserve as millions face rising insurance costs.
In the meantime, state officials across the country are scrambling to feed their residents, and local food banks are bracing for another surge in need.
Ohio
In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine announced new steps to help families caught in the fallout. On Nov. 6, his office said the state is moving forward with a $25 million plan to support almost 1.5 million residents affected by the suspension of federal food benefits.
The plan includes $7 million in direct aid to regional food banks, including nearly $900,000 for the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, from which a significant portion of Stark County Hunger Task Force’s food is purchased.
Additional funds will go to food banks in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and other parts of the state, based on the size of their SNAP caseloads.
DeWine also directed the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to provide up to $18 million in emergency relief to more than 63,000 Ohioans — most of them children — who receive Ohio Works First cash assistance. Those families will see their monthly benefit effectively doubled through weekly payments until federal SNAP funding resumes.
Meanwhile, the state’s Women, Infants and Children program received $10.3 million in new federal funding, allowing services to continue into December for about 180,000 mothers and children statewide.
State officials and food banks alike say that these measures can only go so far, and that the need grows by the day.
For now, though, the Stark County Hunger Task Force is ready.
Its on-site pantry at the Goodwill Ken Weber Community Campus, 408 9th St SW, Canton, Ohio, serves nearly 5,000 residents each month with fresh and shelf-stable food. The organization also supports a network of about 35 partner pantries across the county, which help to feed roughly 32,000 people in all. And through its Backpack for Kids program, the Task Force provides more than 2,300 weekend food bags each week to children in 19 schools and several libraries, ensuring they don’t go hungry when school meals aren’t available.
“This is a time for unity. I think it’s a great way to rally around your neighbors right now,” Sweany said. “And even when we see an end to this particular increase that we’re seeing, neighbors are still going to need the community support.”
Over the past year, Ohio’s 12 regional food banks were already providing about 19 million meals a month, enough to support roughly 1.4 million pantry visits — up from 800,000 just a few years earlier, before the current crisis ever materialized, according to Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.
Both the number of people seeking help and the frequency of their visits have grown. Many families who once needed food assistance only occasionally, after an expensive car repair or missed paycheck, are now coming regularly as rising costs make it harder to stay afloat.
Losing federal SNAP benefits, Novotny said, represents a gap of more than $250 million in monthly purchasing power statewide, the equivalent of roughly 74 million meals based on the average meal cost in Ohio. Replacing that amount through charitable food alone, she added, would require them “to more than quadruple what we’re already doing at extraordinarily high levels which is, you know, not possible. Not possible.”
When asked which communities she’s most worried about, Novotny didn’t hesitate.
“Right now I’m worried about every SNAP family,” she said. She singled out seniors as particularly vulnerable, noting that they “often are more hesitant to raise their hands and seek the help they need to stay safe and nourished because they don’t want to take from someone else they believe is more needy,” as well as disabled Ohioans and residents of rural counties where times were already hard.
The moment, she said, remains unlike anything her organization has faced before.
“We are built for responding in times of disaster and crisis,” Novotny said, noting the resilient community-based infrastructure of staff, volunteers and trucks along with a partner network that works every month to fill food gaps. “But all of that is true, and we’ve never responded to a situation of this magnitude.”
Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro has declared a state of emergency and mobilized more than $7 million in public and private funding to help the nearly two million people there left without federal food assistance. His administration is releasing $5 million in state aid to food banks through Feeding Pennsylvania and has raised an additional $2 million from private donors to strengthen the charitable food network.
Visiting the Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank in Luzerne County on Nov. 6, Shapiro said nearly two million Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP each month and should not have to go hungry because of federal inaction.
“My administration is stepping up to use every tool we have — state resources, private sector support, and the compassion of our communities — to keep our food banks stocked and our families fed,” he said in a press release, admonishing the federal government for failing to issue full benefits.
The crisis deepened last week after Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island rebuked the Trump administration on Nov. 6 for failing to comply with court orders requiring the full release of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits during the shutdown. The judge said the administration “did neither” of what the court had ordered earlier that week — to either pay benefits in full or swiftly fix administrative delays — and instead allowed payments to lapse for the first time in U.S. history.
In no uncertain terms, the lack of action by the government, McConnell said, brought irreparable harm upon “families, elderly, children and others that cannot be undone.”
“Without SNAP funding for the month of November, 16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry. This should never happen in America,” the judge said.
McConnell then accused the President and administration of “withholding full SNAP benefits for political reasons,” noting Trump had already declared his intent to suspend food assistance until the government reopened when he posted on Truth Social Nov. 4 that SNAP payments “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government.”
West Virginia
In neighboring West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey has taken similar steps to brace for rising hunger facing the 300,000 residents who rely on SNAP there. His administration has now released more than $11 million to food banks to meet growing demand during the shutdown, including an additional $2.5 million announced Nov. 6. Morrisey has authorized up to $14.1 million in total aid and said he’s prepared to call the legislature back if more funding is needed.
Even before the shutdown, advocates say the food system in his state wasn’t meeting everyone’s needs.
The West Virginia Food For All Summit aims to change that, bringing together food advocates, organizations and community members from across the state on Nov. 14 to talk about how to build a stronger, fairer food system.
The summit comes at a time when many West Virginians are having to go without more than ever. Lida Shepherd, the director of the American Friends Service Committee’s West Virginia Economic Justice Project, said it’s no accident the federal government hasn’t come up with many solutions.
“Cutting SNAP is a policy choice. In previous government shutdowns, the USDA was directed to use its authority to use contingency funds, emergency funds to keep SNAP running. That is what has always happened. That is what could be happening now but a policy choice is being made to not do that,” she said.
Her organization, part of the Food For All Coalition, is preparing for its annual summit next week where attendees will share strategies for mutual aid, navigating new SNAP rules and building localized food systems. She has a clear message for lawmakers.
“Stop playing politics with 42 million people and just guarantee the funding of SNAP and WIC that is already available,” she said.
For more information about where to find food and other resources, visit ohiofoodbanks.org, pa-navigate.org or wv211.org.
