Imagine your Thanksgiving table. Can you smell the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing? Can you hear the laughter and buzz of conversation on America’s most food-centric holiday? This scene might not be the Thanksgiving experience this year for the 42 million Americans who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] benefits to supplement or provide their grocery budget.
Due to the government shutdown, budget money that would be allotted for SNAP has not been set aside. However, the US Department of Agriculture created a contingency plan in case this should happen; a fund of over $5 billion to provide SNAP benefits in the event of an emergency like the government shutdown. The Trump Administration announced that it would not use this money to fund SNAP at this time, effectively suspending benefits for all those that rely on them, only agreeing to pay 50% of benefits after a court order.
Providing food to the hungry has been a goal of so many food banks and organizations like Feeding America for hundreds of years. Now in 2025, feeding the underprivileged does not appear to be a top priority of the Trump Administration. Neither, it seems, are social security, health care or education — all services that aim to improve the quality of life for everyday Americans.
The role of a president and his administration is to care and provide for all people in the United States, not to defund the program that allows them to put food on their table just in time for our country’s most food-centric holiday. Throughout this shutdown, Trump and Congress Republicans have placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Democrats, rather than sharing the blame for the inability to approve a congressional budget.
Trump used the shutdown and the reduction of SNAP benefits to further his own agenda, finding funds for other branches of the government, but not for low-income Americans, claiming there was nothing that he could do to help them. This disregard for the wellbeing of the working class and his abuse of the power of the purse, a power granted to Congress in the Constitution, disgusts me. Now that the government has reopened, SNAP benefits will resume, but this unnecessary lapse in funding that has affected so many should not be forgotten. The lack of regard for the lower class across America is a consistent theme within the Trump administration that we must make note of.