During the last week, Martina Santos stated she seems like she’s been dwelling a nightmare.
The 67-year-old from the Bronx, New York, is among the almost 42 million People who noticed their Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (SNAP) advantages lapse on Nov. 1.
Though the U.S. Division of Agriculture stated it could partially fund this system utilizing emergency funds, officers stated it might take “a number of weeks to as much as a number of months.” Moreover, President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that no advantages will likely be distributed till the federal government reopens.
The uncertainty of if or when SNAP advantages will likely be funded is leaving many People, like Santos, questioning whether or not she goes to pay lease, pay her payments or purchase meals.
“That is loopy. I am nervous … serious about how I can get the cash to purchase what I want proper now, as a result of I haven’t got meals stamps,” she informed ABC Information. “I must decide if I pay my lease, once I pay my electrical energy or I purchase meals. It is not simple.”
Santos, who volunteers on the nonprofit West Facet Marketing campaign Towards Starvation, stated she is asking her landlord if it is doable to make a partial fee for the month of November.
She added that she’s going to a pantry this week as a result of she does not have a lot meals in her home moreover packets of beans and cereal, together with a gallon of milk her son purchased for her.
Martina Santos, 67, from the Bronx, New York, stated she doesn’t know if she will afford lease for the month of November because of the halt of SNAP advantages.
Courtesy of West Facet Marketing campaign Towards Starvation
Along with meals, Santos stated the lack of advantages is especially devastating as a result of she makes use of them to buy distilled water for her CPAP machine, which helps deal with sleep apnea and, in flip, her hypertension.
“After I do not use the machine, by the subsequent day, I [wake] up drained, I do not wish to do something, as a result of I do not sleep [well],” she stated. “I wish to get up. How can I get out of this nightmare proper now?”
Home violence survivors impacted by lack of SNAP advantages
Nicole, 42, from Lengthy Island, New York — who requested that her final identify not be used — began receiving SNAP advantages in 2024 after leaving a home violence scenario.
She receives about $994 in SNAP advantages per 30 days to assist purchase groceries for her and her three kids — ages 12, 13 and 17 — which she stated is a wrestle.
“Meals is so costly proper now. So, while you go into shops and also you’re shopping for and attempting to funds and save, it is simply not sufficient,” she informed ABC Information. “That is the sensation that I get once I go meals buying. I am a funds shopper. I attempt to look out for offers that they are having and simply refill and be a bulk shopper.”
Nicole stated she receives money help and assist from household, which has helped cowl the price of some groceries within the wake of SNAP advantages being halted, however added she has been often checking her cellular app to see if the EBT card stability continues to be $0.
“I have been checking periodically simply to see if it will say that meals stamps are going to be obtainable. I simply nonetheless have this little hope in praying that will probably be there,” she stated. “And I used to be considering to myself right this moment, like, ‘How lengthy do you assume it is gonna go and thank God we’re getting the money help and a few folks they only do not have it. They simply do not have household.'”
She stated she thinks this example goes to final for a few months and stated she is utilizing this as motivation to hopefully get off of SNAP advantages for good.
Nicole Branca, CEO of New Future Housing, a nonprofit that gives housing to home violence survivors and their kids, stated 70% survivors that the group serves obtain SNAP advantages.
She stated the lack of advantages can compound the bodily and psychological well being struggles that many survivors already expertise.
“Home violence survivors are significantly harmed by this lack of SNAP advantages due to the financial abuse that they’ve skilled,” she stated. “Practically 100% of DV survivors expertise monetary abuse as a part of the abuse, so meaning their abuser restricted their entry to financial institution accounts, ruined their credit score and did not enable them entry to their very own paycheck. And so we work with them to start out from scratch.”
Branca continued, “It is so onerous to seek out the phrases to explain how devastating that is for our households, who’re simply beginning to recuperate financially, emotionally, bodily and the considered not with the ability to pay for meals on the desk for his or her youngsters or having to resolve between meals and lease. It is actually taking a toll on our households.”
A banner reads: “EBT Accepted Right here,” at El Recuerdo Market in Los Angeles, Oct. 31, 2025.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
‘Anxious and anxious’
Elayne Masters, 68, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began receiving SNAP advantages in 2017 after struggling a traumatic mind harm following a fall down a flight of stairs.
Along with her harm, Masters additionally suffers from hypothyroidism, which happens when the thyroid gland does not make and launch sufficient thyroid hormone within the bloodstream, in addition to Lyme illness, an inflammatory sickness normally brought on by an contaminated tick chunk.
Masters usually receives about $250 in SNAP advantages, saying it permits her to purchase wholesome meals that assist enhance signs like mind fog, fatigue, confusion and joint ache.
She stated her numerous circumstances are improved by a nutritious diet, and he or she’s frightened that she will not have the ability to purchase nutrient-dense meals with out SNAP advantages.
“Meals which can be principally excessive quantities of produce, greens and fruits, assist to lower the problematic well being signs that I’ve and once I’m consuming a extremely nutritious diet, I am doing higher, I am seeing the physician much less regularly, I am taking fewer drugs. I am extra functioning,” she informed ABC Information.
“And once I’m not in a position to pay for these wholesome meals, my well being declines, my cognitive functioning declines,” Masters went on. “If I weren’t in a position to keep these wholesome ranges of consuming, as a result of it impacts me so dramatically, so it is an enormous, enormous distinction in my high quality of life and my means to be a productive a part of society as nicely.”
Masters stated she went to a pantry final Wednesday and obtained a pre-packaged bag of meals after attending a gathering on the Better Pittsburgh Group Meals Financial institution.
Elayne Masters, 68, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stated she is anxious and anxious about how she goes to pay for meals and pay her payments since SNAP advantages lapsed.
Courtesy Elayne Masters
She stated she is “anxious and anxious” about with the ability to pay her electrical invoice, automobile insurance coverage and home insurance coverage throughout the subsequent month.
“Winter is coming, and heating payments will likely be larger. If something breaks down, I am in hassle,” she stated. “The vacations are coming, and I could not have the ability to end reward buying.”
Prior to now, to make ends meet, Masters stated she has executed issues to stretch the shelf lifetime of her meals, comparable to slicing mildew off a block of cheese, peeling the rotting layers of an onion to succeed in the layers which can be nonetheless good or saving vegetable scraps to make her personal broth.
“I am beginning to take into account, okay, what sorts of issues can I do which can be going to assist me stretch my {dollars} and a few of the methods that I’ve used up to now?” Masters stated. “I might be able to skate via a month, however a lot past that, and it will be troublesome.”
