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A Letter from the Desk of Jilly Stephens in Response to the Halt of SNAP Benefits Due to the Shutdown

When SNAP Stops, Families Suffer. You Can Help. 

October 28, 2025

The federal government announced that they will stop funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—an essential program that helps 1.8 million New York City residents feed themselves and their families—this Saturday, because of the shutdown. This means our fellow New Yorkers will not receive the critical food assistance they have been counting on. These neighbors of ours—mothers, fathers, seniors on a fixed income—cannot wait for the government to re-open to put food on the table. Will you help City Harvest respond now so that our neighbors in need can access free, nutritious food?  

I will be blunt: This is a crisis. For every meal that organizations like City Harvest provide, SNAP provides nine. No charity can make up for the gap the absence of SNAP creates. But at City Harvest we are positioned to scale up our food rescue and delivery operations in response to a surge in need, and we will do everything we can to provide more food for our fellow New Yorkers in the days and weeks to come. But we can only do this with your support.  

Here’s what your generosity makes possible: 

  • We have been distributing food on military bases and near airports to support federal workers who have been feeling the effects of the shutdown.  
  • Now with the expiration of SNAP days away, we have been in touch with our food pantry partners in the neighborhoods with the highest percentage of SNAP use in the city to understand how we can best support them. We are securing more fresh produce and pantry staples so that we can provide more food to pantries anticipating a spike in visits.  
  • We are committed to doing this while maintaining our distributions to all our food pantry and soup kitchen partners and our own Mobile Markets, because even before the government shut down, visits to New York City soup kitchens and food pantries have been at a record high for months. 

With your support, City Harvest will step up for our fellow New Yorkers who will be depending on us more than ever to help put food on the table during this uncertain time. By giving now, you will help ensure that no matter how many of our neighbors find themselves in need of food assistance, City Harvest will be there for them.  

And if you, like so many of our neighbors, need food assistance, please visit our Find Food map.  

In partnership, 

Jilly 

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