MIAMI — Amid a government shutdown, come Nov. 1, The U.S. Department of Agriculture says no benefits will be issued for the food stamp program known as SNAP.
It stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Deb Dolson is the director of outreach for the Coconut Grove Crisis Food Pantry.
“Most of our clients are elderly and they depend on those SNAP benefits, and so it is more important than ever to make sure we are packing bags of groceries for them every week,” she said.
Currently, the tables, pantries, fridges and freezers at Dolson’s facility that are full of food will be empty following Tuesday’s delivery.
“When they don’t get their SNAP benefits, they may be dependent only on what we can fit in one grocery bag for a week,” said Dolson.
Maureen Luna is the CEO of The Pantry Broward and is having similar fears for the people who she feeds.
“What we’ve been hearing so far is fear and panic,” she said. “We’ve been seeing it definitely affect our senior population that we serve here in South Florida.”
Feeding South Florida is currently working to get food on the table of local families of unpaid federal workers.
“The other part are mental health concerns,” said Feeding South Florida President and CEO Paco Velez. “When you struggle to put food on the table, there’s a sense of a broken spirit.
“A lot of Floridians are on SNAP, to the tune of more than $5 billion worth of benefits coming to the state of Florida,” he added. “It has been a rough year for a lot of families.
Removing SNAP benefits and potentially throttling millions off food assistance, including seniors, veterans and low-income children, could create a surge in demand.
“A lot of families who are going to lose benefits are going to struggle, and they need our community more than ever,” said Velez.
BY THE NUMBERS
Approximately 3 million Floridians rely on SNAP
More than 4 million Floridians rely on ACA - In fact Florida leads the nation in enrollment. 10 top congressional districts with most amount of ACA recipients are all in Florida.
MEETING THE NEED
Temple Judea in Coral Gables will be serving Monday Night Meals from 6-7pm every Monday at the Coconut Grove Crisis Food Pantry. To learn more on how you can join or help click here.
USDA MESSAGE & POLITIFACT DISINFORMATION ALERTS
Posted on USDA Website: “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
Politifact on J.D. Vance: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/oct/01/jd-vance/government-shutdown-Democrats-immigrant-healthcare/
Politifact on Mike Johnson: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/oct/09/mike-johnson/Shutdown-Medicaid-illegal-immigrants-Democrats/
Politifact on Rick Scott: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/oct/08/rick-scott/democrats-shutdown-immigrants-health-abortion-aca/
Local 10 reached out to the USDA for a statement and to present the nonpartisan data, and source of data, that underpins assertion if they do not agree with PolitiFact’s findings of why their statement is false, but have not heard back as of the time of this story’s publication.
EXTENDED STATEMENTS FROM SOUTH FLORIDA LAWMAKERS
Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “If you’re talking about those impacted by the expiration of tax credits, which Republicans are refusing to reenact, 203,000 people in my district alone have Affordable Care Act plans with tax credits that whose costs would be explosive if we don’t extend them. 82,000 people in my district would lose those benefits entirely. They would be completely unaffordable for that many people. And you’ve got millions across the state who would be impacted as well. I mean, I’ll just give you one quick example. I had a father of five children reach out to my office and tell me that his premiums under the Affordable Care Act, if the tax credits are not extended, would go up $1,200 a month. That is a 297% increase. Absolutely unaffordable. And Donald Trump is refusing to use the contingency fund to extend SPAP benefits, those are funds that are available to fund food assistance for the month of November. That’s specifically what those funds are allocated for when there is a lapse in government funding due to a shutdown like this one. But he’s willing to let people go hungry.
“Children, veterans, seniors go hungry out of spite and out of his stubborn refusal to sit down with Republicans and Democrats and negotiate, making sure that we can cancel the cuts, we can lower healthcare costs, keep healthcare affordable and save Americans healthcare. And he’s willing to let millions of people go hungry by crossing his arms and refusing to work out an end of the year government spending plan, like we always do. This is a Trump created healthcare cost crisis on top of an unaffordable Trump economy, which has seen grocery prices spike and healthcare costs increase, housing costs, including rent. Now he’s going to refuse to pay out food assistance funds that we have the funding for because he refuses to come to the negotiating table because they chose to fund tax cuts for billionaires in the ‘Big Ugly Law’. So we have a massive cuts to Medicaid, which are gonna kick millions of people off of their healthcare. You have the refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, and you have a refusal to release the funds for food assistance in November because he just cares more about his billionaire friends that wining and dining to build his ballroom.
“We need and must do both. We need to reopen the government with a negotiation that includes ensuring that people’s healthcare costs don’t explode. We need to make sure that people get the food assistance that they are entitled to. There’s nobody that buys the Republican lie anymore about the illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, because it’s been proven over and over that it is against federal law for undocumented immigrants to get tax credits under the Affordable Care Act and against federal law for people who are undocumented immigrants to get Medicaid. That doesn’t happen.
“That’s not what this is about. Put simply Republicans control the entire government, the White House, the House and the Senate. They are refusing to show up to work.
“Democrats have been coming to DC every week since the shutdown, ready to negotiate a compromise. That can only be done if we work together. One side is ready to work, the other side is AWOL. So we can negotiate this now together and reopen the government and make sure that people get their food assistance and especially make sure that we don’t force people to use the emergency room as their primary access point for healthcare.”
Carlos Gimenez: "I say that whatever we can do to make sure that that [SNAP] doesn’t expire, then go ahead and do it. The holdup now is in the Senate, but I think the best way to assure that none of this, none of these benefits actually are suspended in any way, shape, or form is for the Democrats in the Senate to go ahead and approve the continuing resolution. The problem is that the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, that’s a crisis of the Democrats making. They’re the ones that had the expiration date.
“They created it, they voted for it. And so all we have to do is open up the government.
“There are a number of Republicans that want to extend those subsidies and we can talk about that. We’ve never had this kind of an issue before. We’ve always passed a continuing resolution, which is a clean CR. There are no riders on it. It’s basic, it says continuing to fund the government in the way it’s been funded before. We need to open up the government. That way we don’t hurt people. I am a co-sponsor on a bill that extends that those benefits for an additional year. Let’s quit playing games. We’re starting to hurt people. And the Democrats are doing it just to placate their base. It’s really unfortunate. But the subsidies, there are a number of Republicans that want to do this. Open the government that way we can talk about this issue of the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. We have other issues with the Affordable Care Act. And one of them being that the rates themselves are rising in an astronomical way, we have to take care of that issue too. So what I find interesting, ironic, is that the Democrats are fighting to extend something which they themselves put an expiration date on it. And what’s ironic is that we have a lot of Republicans that do want to do that, extend that date, but we can’t do it because the government is shut down. Open the government, let’s get back to work. I’m usually not as partisan, but in this case, it’s their fault and they need to open up the government. I voted 13 times to keep the government open, even when they were in power, all right? And I had plenty of differences with them on policy and all, but you know what? Shutting down the government wasn’t the way to do it. The way to do it was at the ballot box. The way to do it was the debate on the floor of the house and the debate on the floor of all the committee meetings and all the committees. That’s the way to do an exchange policy, not shutting the government down.”
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