SNAP recipients search for alternative food access as benefits remain frozen for November

CEDAR RAPIDS — This month, as many Americans prepare to talk about what they’re thankful for around the dinner table, Billy and Erin Hanover are having a conversation with their children about sacrifices.

While many of their neighbors in Cedar Rapids prepare their tables for the largest feast of the year, Thanksgiving is one of the last things on their minds.

For the last year, they have received a little over $200 at the beginning of each month from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to help feed their three adolescent children and their granddaughter, age 2. Their relatively small allowance typically helps them purchase more expensive groceries, like milk and meat.

But for SNAP recipients this month, amid the longest federal government shutdown, funding wasn’t just cut to bare bones — it was cut to no bones. And in a house that was already living on the edge, there’s little more they can cut back on.

“It ain’t like we’re living off steaks. It’s hamburger, pork chops, chicken, milk,” Billy said. “My kids are drinking a lot of milk, but we have to cut back on milk, too. We have to drink a lot more water.”

To the parents, sacrifice means eating canned vegetables instead of fresh ones, and Hamburger Helper with a little less ground beef. To some of the kids, it means eating the foods they’re not a fan of, like chopped hot dogs in their macaroni and cheese.

Cereal, something that was previously an affordable evening snack, is becoming less frequent. Instant ramen noodles, something still within their means, are becoming the go-to, more and more.

Last month, Erin purchased some extra chicken legs on sale and has gotten creative with the recipes to make them last. Sometimes, they eat with other relatives to make an economy of scale stretch further.

Their three children, ranging in age from 11 to 17, eat free lunch at school. Billy takes his granddaughter to free lunches at Mission of Hope each day to reduce the strain on their pantry, and the free kids meal program at Hy-Vee’s restaurants has been a godsend for the family this month.

Weekly or biweekly trips to food pantries continue to be a source of food. But even with creativity and determination, good home economics can only trickle down so far on each plate after removing SNAP from the equation.

“We’ll get through it, but it’ll be hard,” Billy said. “Last night, after we ate, my daughter was like ‘Dad, I’m still hungry.’ ”

  Buy Photo

Losing SNAP in an instant

The Hanovers are among about 260,000 Iowans who receive SNAP benefits to keep hunger at bay. In October, for the first time in SNAP’s history, the federal government decided that the government shutdown extended to the vital program.

For Stephanie Learned, former restaurant server with a 7-year-old daughter, losing $472 in benefits without any official notice from the state was a shock.

With meager child support and no other income, SNAP means being able to provide a nutritious dinner in the evening, when her daughter’s ADHD medication with an appetite suppressing effect starts to wear off.

“It’s security. It’s nourishment,” she said. “It’s keeping my daughter fed. It’s everything.”

For years, serving others at restaurants like Olive Garden, Red Robin and Cracker Barrel is what put food on her table. Since 2023, when diabetes left her with severe neuropathy in her feet, it’s been SNAP.

Necrotizing fasciitis, a life-threatening infection, left her disabled after a surgery last year. She is in the process of applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, which is notorious for its lengthy process.

In the mean time, she is going through old clothes and toys to sell to consignment shops. Her parents have come out of retirement to help them by working part-time jobs.

The administration of November SNAP benefits continues to be mired in legal appeals.

After the Trump administration agreed to partially fund benefits with a contingency fund, a federal court on Thursday ordered it to fund 100 percent of benefits. On Friday, the Supreme Court granted the administration’s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order to fully fund SNAP payments.

In Iowa, SNAP benefits serve about 131,000 households with a benefit of about $45 million.

Some states have said that the benefits could take weeks or months to disburse. Recipients tell The Gazette they have received no official guidance or clarification on when to expect their November benefits.

A spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services said the department is awaiting guidance and processes from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, which manages SNAP.

  Buy Photo

Food pantries brace for demand, but can’t replace SNAP

Toward the end of October, the response from generous donors helped bolster nonprofits like the Coralville Community Food Pantry for impact in November.

Even so, leadership anticipates this year being their most difficult one on record.

In Executive Director John Boller’s 13 years with the pantry, the only situation comparable to the demand this month was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. But then, safety net programs like SNAP remained in place; SNAP recipients even received a temporary increase in their benefits.

  Buy Photo

“Now, the safety net is being dismantled and doesn’t really exist,” he said. “Everything is being pushed on the private sector to respond to this crisis.”

Each day in the first week of November, the Coralville Community Food Pantry has either broken records of total visits and new registrations, or got close. In the past two weeks, they’ve had 1,037 visits from clients, up 23 percent from the same period a month ago and almost 29 percent from the same period in 2024.

At the same time, new registrations have surged from 36 at this point last November to 68 this month, an 89 percent jump. Boller said they’ve seen a marked increase in new clients from other neighboring counties, where smaller food pantries can’t keep up with demand.

About 75 percent of the Coralville Community Food Pantry’s clients consider it a primary source of food. Boller estimated that about 30-40 percent of their clients receive SNAP benefits.

Many SNAP recipients strategically use the goods from food pantries with the ones SNAP allows them to purchase — pairing Hamburger Helper from the pantry with ground beef bought at the grocery store, for example. The average family of four can receive about 60 pounds of food from this pantry each week, including meat, dairy, eggs and foods that meet dietary or cultural restrictions.

But food pantries were never designed to replace the sheer volume of SNAP’s direct aid. For each meal food pantries provide, SNAP benefits provide about nine, according to Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) Food Reservoir, the Corridor food bank that supplies food pantries.

  Buy Photo

“One of our core beliefs is that food is a basic human right, and we’re not going to get to that if we’re relying on the private sector,” Boller said. “We’re truly just a small fraction of what it takes to make sure our neighbors have the food they need to survive and thrive.”

Boller said the glimmer of hope to receive at least partial benefits this month, as ordered by the courts, has helped temper a rush on the pantry. But if the government stalemate continues into December, the current pace pantries face isn’t sustainable.

“We have no other choice. We’re going to do what we can,” he said.

Other changes to SNAP, implemented before the government shutdown, are starting to take effect, too.

The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, made refugees and asylum-seekers ineligible for SNAP benefits as of Nov. 1. Other changes expanded work requirements for those up to age 64 and eliminated exemptions for vulnerable demographics, such as those without housing and those who have recently aged out of foster care.

“It feels like policymakers are working to erode SNAP and just get rid of them,” Boller said. “That’s a major fear, and I don’t feel like it’s alarmist to say that. This could be a preview of what’s to come.”

The weight of stereotypes

At food pantries, the assistance families receive is quantified in pounds. But for many recipients, relying on public assistance and private charity entails a personal weight that can’t be calculated by scales.

“My wife and I both feel like we’re failing our children. I don’t know how else to put it,” Billy said.

  Buy Photo

The Hanovers have used SNAP for over a year, along with Erin’s income from working at a local coffee shop, to survive. Billy, a former forklift operator and commercial painter, has been unable to work since 2020, when a cataract surgery left the 63-year-old blind in one eye.

He’s keenly aware of how SNAP recipients are perceived.

“People think that people on SNAP are lazy and trying to live off the government,” he said. “We make our money last as long as we can, but we struggle. This is just taking us over the edge.”

Learned still remembers what her boss told her the last time she tried to go back to work: “You’re a great server, but you can’t do this anymore.”

“I drove by Olive Garden the other day. I wanted to put on my smock,” Learned said. “I want my daughter to be proud of what I can do, and it’s hard. I don’t want to rely on the government, but people can’t see that.”

Despite being some of the poorest residents in Eastern Iowa, Boller said some of the Coralville Community Food Pantry clients have been the most generous. In recent days, some delivery recipients have asked the pantry to skip their food deliveries to make sure those “with greater need” can eat.

They have put their few resources where their mouth is. SNAP recipients wish the elected officials representing them would return the favor.

“Unfortunately, it’s more about politics than it is people,” Hanover said.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.