SNAP recipients struggle to make ends meet amid longest government shutdown ever
NEW YORK (WABC) -- SNAP recipients are struggling to make ends meet with the program halted as the government shutdown -- the longest ever -- continues.
SNAP helps nearly 42 million Americans feed their families -- low-income working folks, senior citizens, the disabled and others who qualify.
"Innocent people don't need to suffer because you have two parties in Congress that can't agree," said SNAP recipient Patricia Brooks, a retired cat fancier who has spent the last six years volunteering at a local food pantry.
"It's giving back," she said of her food distribution work. "We're getting a lot more people than usual."
Brooks is one of those tens of millions of Americans who will feel even more of a pinch at the grocery store as the government shutdown continues.
Around the 7th of every month, she usually receives $200 in SNAP benefits for groceries.
"I never paid $10 for a carton of eggs before. I even saw mayonnaise for $8 in another grocery store," she said.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that no SNAP benefits will go out to Americans until after the government reopens -- a day after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program, said in court it would make partial payments to recipients.
A legal battle is now brewing between a coalition of community organizations and the government over the partial funding. Two federal judges have ordered the government to use emergency funds to fund the program.
In the meantime, food banks and community organizations are feeling the weight of the shutdown as they try to feed their communities.
"We're the ones picking up the slack for that... and they're still getting paid. Doesn't seem fair," Brooks told Eyewitness News.
