Welcome to The Public’s Health. Before I get into the meat and potatoes of the SNAP cuts, I wanted to share a metaphor for where 2025 has taken public health this year. My emotional support Australians have given me the perfect image to represent the year: the engine of a Volkswagen Golf that has eggnog in the oil reservoir instead of, well, oil. Here’s exactly what that looks and sounds like:

What really stood out to me about that “experiment” was the fact that the car’s engine lasted a surprisingly long time. The did 0-60 kph speed tests running on eggnog! They ran the car for ages before the engine finally gave out! That’s just like what’s going on with public health this year—thing are bad, but we aren’t at the point where the car won’t start. Yeah, it’s smoking, making noises it shouldn’t, and smells horrible, but it’s running. The SNAP cuts may be what does it, however.

The American benefits system is really confusing. Many of the program names are used interchangeably. Benefits could be known to you as welfare, food stamps, SNAP, WIC, or EBT. Food stamps is the old name for SNAP. EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer, and is a method to distribute benefits (mostly SNAP, but also other benefits like TANF) via a card, similar to a debit card.

I took a few hours to prepare a table with some basic information on the programs related to food assistance to help you get the basics down. It’s a bit easier to read on the web version compared to the mobile version. This does not cover every single detail about eligibility, program requirements, or funding—it’s just an overview to get you aware of the basics. The information on coverage in November is evolving; I’ll edit the web version of this newsletter if certainty around funding emerges.

If you want more information, I pulled a lot of the above table from Wikipedia and cross-referenced official government sites. The official government sites for these benefits are a mess. Many pages have been removed and most sites have political messages at the top blaming Democrats for the coming November cuts, which is a Hatch Act violation and untrue, as Republicans are currently withholding the contingency funds saved for budget emergencies. The government sites are so bad at the moment, I recommend you stick to Wikipedia, for now.

Earlier this year, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act¹ (OBBBA), which included massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA insurance marketplace (read my source on this if you dare, it has really scary graphs and charts). OBBBA is huge and many more cuts are in the bill than what I can fully get into for this week. Here’s a good site to get more details on the extent of the cuts—much of the pain won’t be felt until closer to 2027. Changes to SNAP were also included in the OBBBA.

This is why we are now in a government shutdown; Democrats won’t vote in support to continue the budget unless these healthcare cuts in the OBBBA are removed and funding is secured for these programs. Republicans are using the shutdown to fire lots of critical public health workers and further harm programs they despise, like these food assistance programs.

The government has now been shut down over this issue for over 30 days. The USDA (which oversees SNAP, WIC, and TANF; remember from the table above!) has pushed for removal of pandemic waivers and other exemptions on work requirements for SNAP in the past week. Those new work requirements go into effect today. The USDA also said some bullshit about the well running dry for SNAP and other benefits when announcing that they were not going to provide SNAP at all during November. This is a political gamble by Republicans, as they hope the pressure this creates will make Democrats give them the votes they need for their continued horrendous budgetary decisions.

This has also created some hell this week, as suddenly shutting off a longstanding program that dispenses trillions of dollars likely would. Benefits recipients are confused. The people that provide benefits to recipients are confused. Because of the existing confusion about these programs, how they work, and their names being used interchangeably by almost everyone, there is a huge uncertainty about who will receive any form of benefit in November.

The announcement that no SNAP was coming in November triggered several lawsuits. There is an existing contingency fund to cover funding gaps like this one. The Trump administration keeps saying it would be illegal to use these funds, but that’s not true. On Friday, two different judges ruled that the SNAP funds must go out in November. The judge in Boston is giving the government until Monday to respond; the judge in Rhode Island ruled the emergency fund should be used “as soon as possible,” per that CNBC story linked above.

I expect the Trump administration to do no such thing, considering how they’ve responded to rulings in cases on immigration throughout this year. If you don’t know, the lawyers on those cases often fail to meet deadlines set by a judge and then proceed to drag things on as long as possible. Trump did respond on Friday evening, saying he needs the courts to clarify how they can “legally” use the funds. This already sounds like dragging feet. By the time this newsletter goes out, Trump may have sent some midnight posts on social media, but I won’t be staying up to read ‘em.

Suddenly taking away tens of millions of people’s funding for food will have several consequences. Hunger and malnutrition are obvious effects on individuals and families losing their benefits. People will choose to eat worse quality food because it’s cheaper and more calorie-dense than fresh produce and vegetables. Pregnant people going hungry means more pregnancy complications, which will increase their healthcare costs, too. Children going hungry will do worse in school and have worse overall behavior and health. People will avoid doctor’s appointments to try and cut costs, resulting in an overall worsening of health for millions, either due to lack of food or dramatic changes in their lives to afford food.

This also will cause grocery store prices to increase for everyone, as a huge source of grocery store revenue will evaporate with the loss of these benefits. Food pantries will have very high demand and likely can’t keep up in most parts of the country. Hungry people who are desperate to feed their families could resort to shoplifting or other crime to get enough food. There’s already reporting of local police forces expanding patrols in grocery stores to address the anticipated crime. The National Guard has already been activated by executive order to “fight crime” in areas like Washington DC. We could see a lot more of that in the face of any unrest.

People that lose their benefits may also default on other necessary payments, using that money for food, instead. That could mean more evictions, as people fail to pay rent on time, or asset seizures, as people fail to pay car payments. Losing transportation means losing access to jobs in most parts of the country.

Even if you personally don’t rely on these benefits, the cuts will have an effect on your life. Health insurance premiums are going up for just about everyone because of the OBBBA’s changes to the ACA, Medicaid, and Medicare. I’m on private insurance and the benefits for next year came with a wild section on premiums going up but Also We Should Be Glad to have a company-sponsored plan that covers a big percent of our total health plan costs. Y… yay?

The bottom line is that cuts to SNAP will eventually hit every American.

That’s a LOT of bad for one newsletter. I want you to know that I’ve seen a tremendous response online to these looming cuts. So many people are out there sharing so many ideas to help keep friends, family, and community fed. Here are some things you can do or some sources of inspiration:

Talk to anyone you can about this. Friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, representatives, anyone! Tell them you value feeding your fellow Americans. Tell them that you’re worried about children and the elderly going hungry. Tell them if you donate money to food pantries, call your representatives, or volunteer your time at a soup kitchen. Tell them about the resources to get free or low cost food in your communities. Whatever you do, keep talking about this.

Your family sending offensive and incorrect TikToks to the group chat about “welfare queens” or “abuse” of these programs? I got you covered with some vertical videos you can send right back!

Send this one with a “if you don’t want children eating dinner, just type that.”

Send this one with a “you sound like these guys at the end.”

Don’t let anyone you know get away with shrugging this off or trying to blame the people that are food insecure on this problem created by Trump and his corrupt cronies that want to watch the country burn for their profit. You can keep it positive by talking to people about any generosity you put forward this month!

There are a lot of ways to get free and low cost food, but I can’t cover every single option for you community. That means you need to do a little research on your own. Internet searching for “[your community or town name] food pantry” can be a good start. If you go to church, you can ask staff about organizations they’ve worked with and trust. Same if you’re a student, it doesn’t hurt to ask around the organizations your in for information.

There are also several apps that can connect people to restaurants that share surplus food for free or for reduced cost. I’ve seen people discuss Too Good To Go: End Food Waste and Flashfood, which seem legit (but I haven’t used them). Depending on where you live, these may not be a viable option, especially for rural locations. Just check for yourself before you send these apps to people in need in your area.

I’ve also seen people converting local Little Free Libraries into mini food pantries. Consider setting this up in your area, if you already manage a Little Free Library for your neighbors.

If you have the means, you can donate to food pantries and other local organizations that distribute free food to those in need. Don’t dig to the back of your pantry for expired cans—give money, instead. People that work food pantries will be able to make your dollar stretch farther, as they’re the experts on what food people need and where they can get the best deal.

A word of caution: it’s possible Internet scams could increase in the next month. If you see a fundraiser online to raise money for food, double check the details before donating in case it’s a scammer that has spun something up quickly to try and make some money off of your generosity. Research the name of any organization asking for money online and make sure the organization is real and whatever fundraiser you’re looking at is actually associated with that org. It’s an extra step, but a worthwhile one to make sure your money is going to the people that need it the most.

If you have time, consider volunteering to help distribute food! If you’re new to volunteering in this space, be open minded and recognize that you’re new to this. It might be uncomfortable, at first. Listen to the people volunteering that have more experience than you to learn how to approach the task at hand. Do your best to spread kindness to those struggling and hungry. With the expected increased crowds at pantries, wear a mask to protect yourself and everyone else from spreading the flu or Covid-19!

You can also prep and distribute food yourself. This is a great video that could help you get some food together for people you know that need it. You don’t have to invent activism from scratch, if you want to get involved. You can always look in person and online for what people are already doing to get a head start! There are farmers working to give away food to those that need it, restaurants offering free meals to SNAP recipients, and news organizations all over the country are getting the word out about local initiatives to get people food.

… If you see someone stealing food, NO YOU DIDN’T (unless you’re prepared to approach them and pay for what they need).

To prep for the newsletter each week, I bookmark stories, social media posts, videos, and more for possible inclusion in the final newsletter. A big week could have around 20 bookmarks. I have 38 bookmarks from this past week! I can’t cover all of that, so here are a select set of stories I’ve had my eye on aside from the SNAP news:

I’ve been working on some images for some official newsletter branding. They aren’t done, but here’s a preview of one of my works in progress:

I have to end on a special thanks to my husband, who vastly improved the formatting of my big (beautiful) benefits table! Thanks, honey!

This is my longest newsletter yet, so thanks to you for reading it all, if you made it this far. I’ll see y’all next week with another newsletter.

Professor Batty