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More than 6,500 Cambridge residents could lose assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Nov. 1 as the federal government refuses to fund the program amid an ongoing shutdown.
Congress failed to agree on a federal budget before an Oct. 1 deadline, halting all funding for government services until a budget can be passed. And as the shutdown stretches into November, the SNAP program is expected to run out of funds entirely.
President Donald Trump refused to draw from other funds to continue the program. While some states have stepped in to partially fund SNAP benefits, Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92 said the state would not be able to make up the difference.
Healey announced in a Thursday press conference that state funding for regional food banks would double during November. The state was quick to put pressure on the Trump administration, demanding funding from federal reserves to continue providing SNAP benefits.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell, alongside 22 other attorney generals and three governors, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, arguing that cutting SNAP was unnecessary and illegal. A federal judge criticized the Trump administration in a Thursday hearing, but has yet to rule on a temporary restraining order that would continue funding SNAP.
But as Nov. 1 draws near, almost 42 million Americans nationwide face uncertainty over where their next meal will come from. The thousands receiving SNAP benefits in Cambridge are no different.
“From my experience working on the register the past couple of weeks, up at the front end, a lot of our customers are starting to grow concerned over not being able to buy food — not being able to eat on a daily basis,” Christen Guillen, a cashier at Broadway Marketplace, said.
As residents prepare to lose SNAP benefits, they have turned to local nonprofits in record numbers.
The Cambridge Economic Opportunities Committee, a nonprofit serving low-income residents, hit the highest single-day count of residents visiting its food pantry on Wednesday, according to Associate Director of the CEOC Rachel Plummer.
“Seeing 350 people was the most that we’ve ever seen,” she said.
Plummer said that the pantry first saw a noticeable increase in residents when Trump took office in January. The pantry, which is open weekly on Wednesday, averaged 275 to 300 people prior to this week, according to Plummer.
As the holiday season nears, the loss of SNAP has already proven devastating. One resident who visited the CEOC pantry was forced to cancel her children’s Halloween plans to save money for their November meals, Plummer said.
“There are a lot of people that are already thinking about the trade-off decisions that they’re going to have to make: will I pay rent, or will I buy groceries? Will I go to the doctor to get my medicine, or will I buy fresh fruits and vegetables?” Plummer said.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she added.
First Parish Church, which operates a food pantry and outdoor fridge in Harvard Square, hopes to use its existing infrastructure to encourage its congregation to pitch in.
“I’m sending out a letter to the congregation later today,” Reverend Robert “Rob” M. Hardies, lead minister at First Parish Church, said Thursday.
“We’ve all been kind of mobilizing, and then we’re going to kind of tell the whole congregation what’s happening today,” he said, adding that the Church planned to encourage people to bring food donations and volunteer for extra shifts serving meals.
Cambridge’s food pantries receive large amounts of food from regional food banks, which will now receive increased funding from the state. But as the end date of the shutdown remains unclear, Plummer said nonprofits face “a lot of unknowns” about how they can meet the increased need.
“The entire emergency food system infrastructure is built on SNAP working and working well,” said Victoria Negus, a policy advocate specializing in SNAP from the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.
“If SNAP is delayed, the size of the harm is just not something that the emergency food system can absorb or address,” Negus added.
Even if the demand is satisfied, many retail stores may be worrying for their own business as they rely on customers using SNAP benefits for a portion of their revenue.
“SNAP is a huge amount of money that comes in the door for them,” Emily M. Broad Leib, the director of the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, said.
“They’re worried that people who don’t have the resources to spend that money anymore will not be buying what they would normally buy — either because they’re getting the food elsewhere or because they are obviously just reducing their intake,” she said.
— Staff writer Diego García Moreno can be reached at diego.garciamoreno@thecrimson.com.
— Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at summer.rose@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.
