The longest government shutdown in U.S. history halted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments in November, leaving millions of families across the country without the benefits they depend on to buy groceries and uncertain about when payments would resume. In New York City, where an estimated 1.8 million residents rely on SNAP, the impact was immediate. In response, the NYC Food Policy Center, Hunter School of Health Professions, Hunter’s Department of Nutrition and Public Health, the Silberman School of Social Work, and community partner East Side Soul convened “SNAP-shot,” bringing together experts to examine the impact on students and the East Harlem community.
Panelists included Dr. Jera Zhang, assistant professor of Nutrition and Public Health; Dr. Wen-Yuan Wang, assistant professor of Nutrition and Public Health; Dr. Keith Chan, associate professor at the Silberman School of Social Work; Miesha Smith, assistant dean of Student Life; graduate student Savannah Sclafani; and Jocelyn Caceres, executive director of the East Side Soul Family Enrichment Center at Union Settlement. Dr. Khursheed Navder, dean of the School of Health Professions at Hunter College, delivered opening remarks, and Dr. Mark Chatarpal, executive director of the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center, moderated the discussion.
The panel emphasized that when SNAP lapsed, the impact wasn’t abstract or distant. It was evident in empty pantry shelves, students skipping meals, and families making impossible choices between groceries and other necessities. The following are the key takeaways from the conversation.
- SNAP is a Lifeline with Limits
To set the stage for the discussion, Dr. Jera Zhang provided an overview of SNAP, the nation’s largest nutrition assistance program, which supports approximately 42 million Americans, including families with children, older adults, and individuals with disabilities.
She traced the program’s roots to the Great Depression, when early administrator Milo Perkins described an unfortunate paradox: farmers struggling with unsold surpluses on the one hand, and families with empty stomachs on the other. Food stamps were created to connect the two, and while the program has evolved significantly over the decades, from paper coupons to today’s electronic benefit cards, it continues working toward the same goal. Dr. Zhang also highlighted the fact that, in addition to improving food security and nutrition and reducing poverty, the program supports local economies, with each benefit dollar generating about $1.50 in additional economic activity.
Despite these enormous benefits, however, the program has clear limits, even when it functions as intended. Most SNAP households receive only about six to seven dollars per day per person, an amount that’s difficult to stretch across a month, especially in expensive cities like New York. As a result, many families find their benefits exhausted by mid-month, leaving them struggling to meet basic nutritional needs. And when government shutdowns halt payments entirely, those who depend on SNAP face an immediate crisis.
To help her students grasp what these budget constraints actually mean in daily life, Dr. Zhang gives those in her community nutrition education course a powerful experiential assignment called the “SNAP Challenge.” Students attempt to buy and prepare all their meals for five consecutive days using the same daily budget that SNAP provides, approximately $7 per day, or a total of $35, while simultaneously trying to follow federal dietary guidelines for healthy eating.
Savannah Sclafani, a graduate student in the MS-Integrated Program in Nutrition and Dietetics, shared her experience completing the challenge the previous year. As both an athlete training for a powerlifting meet and someone living with type 1 diabetes, she approached the assignment methodically, comparing prices across multiple stores near her dorm and the campus, including Target, Trader Joe’s, Food Town, City Fresh, and Dollar Tree.
The price differentials were significant. “I remember being shocked by the stark difference in egg prices, anywhere from $5 to $9 in local Harlem grocery stores compared to $2.99 at Trader Joe’s,” she said. Her meals included peanut butter toast with bananas, egg salad sandwiches, instant coffee, whole milk, chicken with frozen vegetables and lentils, cherry tomatoes, tuna fish, and oatmeal, supplemented with free herbs from volunteering with the Edible Schoolyard.
Despite her nutrition training and careful planning, meeting her calorie needs proved nearly impossible. She was noticeably hungrier than usual throughout the week. More dangerously, she experienced low blood sugar every single day of the challenge, sometimes multiple times. Treating those hypoglycemic episodes consumed about 10 percent of her budget, money she desperately needed to buy more filling food. “It highlighted how chronic illness exacerbates the struggles faced by those living with food insecurity,” she said.
The challenge also revealed hidden costs beyond the groceries. She waited over half an hour at Hunter’s Purple Pantry for free groceries, but tried not to rely on them to stay true to the budget constraints of the assignment. When a friend wanted to spend time with her, there was no room in the budget for them to go out to eat. “Honoring the integrity of the project, she brought over chocolate-covered pretzels and helped me calculate the cost per pretzel,” Sclafani recalled. It was the only sweet treat she had during the challenge.
The whole experience transformed Savannah’s understanding of the impossible choices SNAP recipients face daily. “While my meals were healthy, the low volume made me realize why people living in poverty might reach for calorie-dense, nutrient-poor food, especially when that food is cheaper, more accessible, and makes you feel more satiated,” she reflected. “You can’t criticize someone’s diet if you don’t understand the budget they’re working with,” she added, making clear why eating nutritiously on a SNAP budget is so challenging and why even small disruptions can have serious health consequences.
Her message to critics of SNAP was direct: “I ask that anyone who criticizes these support systems take a step back and perhaps even try this challenge before taking action against programs like SNAP.”
- Food Insecurity Is Widespread Among College Students
The panel emphasized what many outside higher education may not realize: food insecurity on college campuses is alarmingly common. An estimated forty percent of CUNY students, roughly 110,000 people, experience food insecurity, a rate driven by rising living costs, long commutes, unstable work hours, and the financial pressures of tuition, childcare, and basic expenses. According to the Government Accountability Office, an estimated 23 percent of college students nationwide are food insecure, revealing a crisis that extends far beyond New York City.
Assistant Dean of Student Life Miesha Smith described the way Hunter’s pantry system has evolved in response to this need. Ten years ago, Hunter did not have a food pantry, and neither did most other CUNY campuses. Today, every CUNY college operates one, and since 2018, Hunter’s Purple Apron Pantry has grown from a small effort supporting residential students into a six-day-a-week operation serving students from across the university. It now offers shelf-stable staples, fresh produce, meat, eggs, halal and kosher items, and even household essentials such as toilet paper and pet food when available. A separate initiative, the Pantry Link Program, uses smart vending machines to provide free fresh produce and prepared grab-and-go meals any time the campus is open.
The expansion reflects surging demand. Pantry visits have more than doubled over the past year, and weekly food deliveries that once lasted a week now sometimes disappear within two days. “Students [are] lining up knowing that Wednesday morning means delivery time,” Smith said, describing the way students who have learned to time their visits to coincide with the arrival of fresh stock.
She also emphasized the pride her team takes, despite these challenges, in making the pantry a bright, welcoming, judgment-free space where students feel comfortable dropping in, grabbing what they need, and building community. Student workers and volunteers have nicknamed themselves the “Pan-Fam” and maintain an active social media presence to normalize seeking help.
Many students hesitate to use the pantry, worried that others “need it more,” and Smith pushed back hard on that notion. Her message is unequivocal: “Please don’t think you’re not the student we’re trying to help. I don’t care if you come down and say, ‘I just get paid on Thursday. It’s Monday. I need some rice and beans.’ Come down, get it.” If you’re a student worrying about whether you can afford groceries until your next paycheck, wondering what your younger siblings will eat at home, or choosing between a MetroCard and a meal, you are exactly who the pantry exists to serve.
The panel also highlighted barriers students face in accessing SNAP itself. Federal rules require most students to work at least twenty hours a week, participate in federal work-study, or meet specific exemptions related to caregiving or academic programs. These requirements can be nearly impossible for students balancing full course loads, internships, long commutes, or inconsistent job schedules, and staff from Hunter’s Welfare Rights Initiative added that many eligible students never apply because the rules are confusing or they assume they won’t qualify.
Together, these factors create the reality that thousands of students regularly struggle to afford balanced meals and rely on campus food programs to fill the gaps.
- The Patchwork Under Pressure: How Compounding Cuts Leave Nowhere to Turn
Understanding the impact of SNAP disruptions requires seeing the program not in isolation but as one component of a larger, interconnected safety net. Dr. Keith Chan, an associate professor at the Silberman School of Social Work whose research focuses on social determinants of physical and mental health, explained the core problem: SNAP has never been enough on its own. People survive by piecing together multiple forms of support, and right now, many of those pieces are being cut.
“Oftentimes there’s a patchwork of things that people have access to really feed themselves, because there’s really not one resource that is sufficient,” Dr. Chan said. People receiving SNAP also rely on community food pantries, congregate meal programs, Medicaid and Medicare, school meals, childcare subsidies, housing assistance, and informal help from family or neighbors. Most of these resources are funded directly or indirectly by the federal government. “So when we’re seeing cuts across the board, we’re not just talking about one program. We’re talking about different programs that people depend on to feed themselves,” he explained,
Recent federal actions have simultaneously weakened multiple parts of this support system. The government shutdown caused temporary SNAP payment delays. The Big Beautiful Bill, passed this summer, dramatically reduced SNAP access by eliminating eligibility for refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrant groups, increasing work requirements and expanding time limits on how long able-bodied adults without dependents can receive benefits, changing how benefit amounts are calculated, and shifting administrative costs to the states. The bill also included huge cuts to Medicaid benefits, while other federal policies reduced funding for emergency food programs. So even with the shutdown ended and payments resumed, according to the new rules, many who previously qualified no longer do, and others will receive reduced benefits. Meanwhile, alternative resources face funding cuts and surging demand.
The numbers reveal both the scale of the problem and why state and local resources cannot compensate for the loss of federal funding. In New York State alone, nearly three million people depend on SNAP. In January 2025, those recipients received $655.9 million in federal SNAP benefits for that single month. When the state committed $40 million in emergency funding during the shutdown, that worked out to around $13 per person, a fraction of the monthly federal support that was delayed. State and local governments simply lack the resources to fill the gap left by federal cuts.
Those already most vulnerable bear the heaviest burden. “So in terms of older adults, immigrants, children, a lot of these folks who are really the most vulnerable, they’re going to have the hardest time in terms of even being able to feed themselves,” Dr. Chan said. Older adults on fixed incomes face impossible choices between food and medication. Immigrants and refugees confront new eligibility restrictions and growing fear about accessing benefits. Students balance multiple jobs and coursework while navigating systems never designed for their circumstances. People with disabilities managing chronic conditions face reduced access to both food and healthcare.
The combination of food and healthcare cuts creates particular danger. “When we’re talking about social welfare systems and programs like Medicare and Medicaid, those are the programs that actually help to keep people healthy. So, if we’re cutting food, we’re cutting food access, and we’re also cutting healthcare, then people really have nowhere else to turn,
Dr. Chan concluded.
- Community Organizations Step In When Federal Support Falls Short
When SNAP payments stop during a government shutdown or when monthly benefits run out mid-month, people still need to eat, and they turn to the organizations closest to them. Those community-based organizations find themselves under tremendous pressure to step in and fill the void left by federal programs.
Jocelyn Caceres, Executive Director of East Side Soul Family Enrichment Center at Union Settlement, a community organization in East Harlem that provides wraparound support services to families, described the immediate impact she’s witnessed. Her organization serves as a neighborhood anchor where residents can connect, access resources, and find support during times of need. The government shutdown and ongoing SNAP benefit reductions have dramatically increased demand for the services of her organization and other nonprofits across the city.
“We’re seeing a real increase in families struggling to meet their basic food needs,” Caceres explained. Phone calls and walk-ins now come not only from East Harlem residents but from across all five boroughs. “We’re getting calls from Brooklyn, Queens, asking for resources, for food pantries, for any pop-up events they can attend,” she said.
This is not, however, a crisis caused solely by the recent shutdown, Caceres stressed. It’s also chronic and ongoing. “Our neighbors have also expressed that even though they’ve had these benefits prior to this shutdown, it’s still not enough, right?” she said. “The cost of food is so high that these funds are running… they’re gone by mid-month, which is forcing them to have no choice but to go to local food pantries or come into spaces like ours for a meal.”
The challenge for organizations like East Side Soul is meeting this need with limited capacity. “We’re a small but mighty team,” Caceres explained. “We want to be able to help everyone, but sometimes the resources just aren’t there.” While the organization has food on site daily for families to snack on, “it’s just not sustainable for, let’s say, a family of seven who has nothing at home,” she said. “So we can feed you on the site, but we really want to long-term give you something sustainable so that you can go home with it.”
Partnerships have become essential to bridging this gap. East Side Soul “relies heavily on partnerships and working with local organizations to assist us in creating these popups or be able to provide food for us to be able to distribute,” Caceres said. Recent collaboration with the NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter College has enabled more consistent food distributions, and across the city, similar partnerships between universities, faith-based groups, and neighborhood nonprofits help stretch limited resources.
But effective food assistance requires more than distributing groceries, Caceres stressed. “Although programs like SNAP are essential, they often cannot reach the deeper social and emotional needs that come with food insecurity. And that’s where our organization sort of steps in.”
East Side Soul creates a space where families can come together, share a meal, learn about nutrition, or connect with neighbors who understand their challenges. “Most importantly, we’re just meeting people where they are,” Caceres said. “We open our doors. It’s confidential. They don’t have to sign in. It’s just an open, comfortable space for you to come in and express your needs. And that’s what we try to do as best as we can: to bridge these gaps, to listen and understand exactly what families want, and to respond with compassion and empathy.”
Her remarks highlighted the reality of what happens when federal programs fail to meet the needs they were intended to address: community organizations step in to keep their neighbors from going hungry. They do so with limited funding, small staff teams, and resources that fluctuate based on donations and partnerships. These organizations provide a vital safety net, but they were never designed or resourced to replace federal nutrition assistance programs.
- Finding Food: Apps and Resources That Make Navigation Easier
Dr. Wen-Yuan Wang discussed the practical tools that can help people find food assistance during a government shutdown and in normal times. An assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Public Health who has spent years working directly with people experiencing food insecurity, particularly in immigrant communities, Dr. Wang emphasized that navigating the emergency food system shouldn’t require expert knowledge or hours of research. Some of the key resources and digital tools she provided include:
- FoodHelp NYC: A city-run directory of pantries and soup kitchens searchable by ZIP code.
- Plentiful: A mobile app that lists pantry locations, hours, services offered (including culturally specific foods), and appointment options.
- NYC Food Policy Center Neighborhood Guides: Hyperlocal guides listing pantries, community fridges, congregate meal sites, and other community resources.
- Too Good To Go: An app offering deeply discounted surplus food from restaurants and grocery stores.
- Access HRA: An online portal for applying for SNAP and other benefits
- Community fridges: Volunteer-operated refrigerators in public spaces offering 24/7 access to donated produce and prepared food, no questions asked.
- Community & Faith-Based Programs: Churches, mosques, temples, and cultural centers offering flexible, low-barrier food assistance.
- 311: Call and ask for “food assistance” for help locating sites in New York City without using a smartphone
Dr. Wang emphasized the fact that, when searching for food assistance, location matters as much as availability. “Transportation time also counts as food cost,” she stressed. “That’s why we want to promote the maximum usage of your local food resources.” For students juggling classes, jobs, and family responsibilities, for seniors with mobility limitations, and for parents managing young children, a food pantry that requires multiple subway transfers or a long walk simply isn’t accessible, regardless of what it offers.
Tools that help people identify options that fit their schedules, transportation realities, language needs, and dietary requirements can make the difference between accessing food and going without. And, critically, this information needs to spread through communities. “Share the information with your family, friends, even people you see in your building every day,” she urged. “Just tell them this is available.”
For those who want to hear the full conversation, the complete “SNAP-shot” panel recording is available on the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center’s YouTube channel.
