At a Hamilton County Commissioners staff meeting Tuesday, commissioners and community leaders called for assistance to help those who will be affected by the suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as the federal government shutdown heads into November. Commissioners also called on the federal government to end the shutdown and restore social safety net programs like SNAP.
The federal government shut down on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to pass new funding bills. On Oct. 26, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced SNAP would be suspended starting Nov. 1. The situation is unprecedented, leaving local and state governments across the country scrambling to fill in the gaps. If SNAP does not receive emergency funding, that will limit critical access to food for around 40 million Americans, who will then have to make difficult decisions on how to allocate their budgets between food, rent, medications and other necessities. Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) did receive emergency funding earlier in October, but National WIC Association President and CEO Georgia Machell said funds for the program were running low and it could possibly face similar challenges as SNAP in November.
“We’re talking about working families. We’re talking about seniors. We’re talking about kids. One out of eight people in Hamilton County relies on SNAP, to put this in perspective,” Commission President Denise Driehaus told reporters following the meeting.
As long as the shutdown continues, SNAP funds will not be loaded onto EBT cards for the benefit month of November, says Michael Patton of Hamilton County Job and Family Services (HCJFS). However, you will still be able to use any leftover funds from October in November.
“If you have benefits on your card, you can use those this November until they are depleted,” Patton told commissioners, adding that the department is also still accepting applications for future SNAP recipients, as well as reviewing recertifications and taking case changes for those already on the program.
Each month, Hamilton County issues around $19.1 million — or $240 million annually — to its approximately 97,000 recipients, 45% of whom are children and 12% of whom are seniors 65 or older. The math works out to an average of $197 a month for each recipient, or about $5.64 a day.
Patton is unsure of how quickly funds can be loaded onto EBT cards once the government reopens, saying the situation is something he’s never experienced in his decades of work.
“This is unprecedented in my experience,” Patton said. “I’ve been doing this for 32 years and really dedicated my career to this. As someone who has been in the space to provide public support to our citizens, this is something I have not seen in my career get to this point.”
Kurt Reiber, the CEO of the Freestore Foodbank, also spoke at the meeting. He says roughly 50% of the families the food bank serves are on SNAP, and the need is ever-growing. In the first quarter last year, Reiber said Freestore Foodbank’s two retail markets — the Bea Taylor Market in Riverside and the Liberty Street Market in Over-the-Rhine — provided $130,000 in food assistance. In this year’s first quarter, that was more than doubled to $270,000.
“Two hundred seventy-five thousand of our neighbors are food insecure — 82,000 kids. Imagine Great American Ball Park being filled up twice. That’s how many kids don’t know where the next meal is coming from,” Reiber told commissioners.
While the food bank is serving more families, federal aid has shrunk, says Reiber. During the first quarter in 2024, Freestore Foodbank received 44% of its food from the USDA. In the first quarter of this year, it was just 26%.
“Nine out of 10 meals … provided to Tri-State families come from SNAP benefits. One out of 10 meals comes from Freestore Foodbank and our sister food banks across the country. We cannot food bank our way out of this situation. Philanthropy will help, but we need government resources right now,” he said.
Rainy day call for aid
Echoing Reiber’s sentiments that food banks cannot be the sole means of ensuring Hamilton County’s families are fed, all three commissioners called on the federal government to end the shutdown and on the state government for assistance until that happens.
Driehaus says Ohio is holding onto a $3.94 billion Rainy Day Fund — the largest in Ohio’s history.
“Those dollars were set aside for a moment of crisis, and, for right now, it is raining for families in Hamilton County in the state of Ohio. So we’re calling on Gov. DeWine and on the legislature to release some of the rainy day funds, to provide … gap funding until we have the federal government open up for business.”
The commissioners also asked private investors to consider stepping in to help fill the gap in food assistance.
“We’re saying $240 million … annually, for SNAP benefits [in Hamilton County], would take care of it. There are plenty of CEOs in this community, in this county, that could step up, step in. We don’t know how long this federal shutdown is going to go, so I’m asking our private agencies, CEOs, companies to step up and help,” said Commissioner Stephanie Summerow Dumas.
“Everybody is not broke,” Commissioner Alicia Reece added, mentioning the millions of dollars an alleged private donor gave Louisiana State University to buy out the contract of former University of Cincinnati football coach Brian Kelly, as well as the $300 million raised by 37 private donors for President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom. “The money is out there, but, unfortunately, we’re creating a society of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’”
The commissioners also promised to do what they could to assist Hamilton County families missing out on SNAP benefits this November, including possibly providing around $180,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to Freestore Foodbank.
“We are going to do all we can to help increase our funding to the food banks so that they have the capacity to serve, at least in part, some of the individuals that will no longer be receiving the SNAP benefits,” Driehaus said.
Reiber added that Freestore Foodbank is also looking into increasing the once-a-month shopping trip at its markets that it offers families to twice a month while the shutdown continues. He also said the food bank is ready to serve furloughed government workers, and major retailers like Kroger, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Meijer and Costco are responding to requests to donate more food.
“Fortunately, we’ve been able to adjust our resources, and we have a very caring community,” Reiber shared. “We appreciate what this great community has done for us.”
Economic impact
It’s not just those on the SNAP program who will be impacted by its suspension. Retailers, especially grocery stores, will feel the sting of the loss of shoppers, and consumers could very likely face higher prices as a result. It’s estimated that each dollar of SNAP funds generates $1.54 in economic impact. In Hamilton County, the annual economic impact is just under $370 million based on funds that are distributed under SNAP benefits, says Reiber.
And it won’t just impact major supermarkets like Kroger and Walmart. In Ohio, nearly 10,000 retailers benefit from SNAP funds, including Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine.
“My grandmother did have to go on assistance,” said Reece. “And I remember Findlay Market only could survive at that time because 90% of the people at that time … were the people who were providing the food stamps, or SNAP benefits, as it’s called today. … So we always talk about the person with the card, but we don’t talk about the stores that benefit.”
Clearing up a narrative
Commissioners also stressed it’s important to remember who is served by SNAP benefits and other forms of food assistance, pushing back against an offensive and inaccurate caricature of an able-bodied adult who lives off government assistance instead of working. Reiber says this hasn’t been his experience.
“Seventy to 75% of the families we serve are working families. You just have to make that tough decision. Two-thirds have to decide: Do I buy my food or do I pay rent? Do I buy food or do I buy medicine for the kids? Do I buy food or do I get my car fixed so I get to work?” he said.
According to the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, almost 1.5 million people in Ohio receive SNAP, including 45,000 veterans. Of those families, 62% have children and 43% have older adults or individuals with disabilities.
“These are people who are working. That means they’re paying taxes and they’re busting their butt every day trying to provide for them, for their families,” said Reece. “This is grandma and granddad, who has been working, who had to retire.”
Summerow Dumas also emphasized that food is a necessity and that SNAP benefits often aren’t “supplemental” like the name suggests. Rather, many families rely on it as their main access to food and nutrition.
“As a former social worker, I know what happens when families lose access to food and housing support,” said Summerow Dumas. “It doesn’t take long before people are forced into impossible choices … This is about parents skipping meals so that their children can eat. Our seniors rationing medication and trying to figure out how are they going to make it to afford groceries when the federal funding stops? And it has stopped. The safety net starts to unravel, and those who fall through are the ones that can least afford it.”
Across the river
In Kentucky on Tuesday, Gov. Andy Beshear joined a lawsuit along with 24 other states and Washington, D.C. to sue the Trump administration, claiming the USDA has $6 billion in contingency funds that could be used for SNAP. The USDA said in a memo last week, however, that contingency funds legally couldn’t be used to cover regular benefits.
“Our President should be focused on fighting hunger, not causing it — yet the unlawful suspension of SNAP benefits is going to [cause] more than 40 million Americans and almost 600,000 Kentuckians — many of which are children — to go without food,” Beshear said in a statement Tuesday. “My faith teaches me that food is lifegiving and meant to be shared. From the miracle of fishes and loaves to the Last Supper, we are called to feed and care for each other, and the Trump administration prohibiting SNAP benefits is wrong.”
Resources
You can also follow HCJFS on social media for the latest information and developments on SNAP.
