Hunger is coming to Minnesota, local food banks warn, as SNAP benefits are scheduled to run out in days if the federal government shutdown does not end.
Forty-two million people will lose benefits nationwide, including more than 440,000 Minnesotans, on Saturday.
Local food banks are bracing for a surge in demand, fearing they won’t have enough food to offer.
The Food Group is a Minnesota nonprofit that works with and administers grants to food banks statewide.
“This is really an unprecedented situation. We have food shelves who have already been at capacity with high grocery prices, seeing over 9 million visits last year,” Sophie Lenarz-Coy, executive director of The Food Group, said.
Without SNAP benefits, one of the only options is food shelves, which many SNAP recipients already use. The average SNAP benefit per person in Minnesota is $157 a month, or just over $5 a day.
But food shelves are already struggling to meet demand. The Food Group reports visits to Minnesota food shelves rose 18% between 2023 and 2024.
Among the biggest increases are rural areas, with visits in Nobles County in southwestern Minnesota rising 194% and visits in Mahnomen County in northern Minnesota rising 102%. Those figures do not account for increased demand in 2025, fueled by continued inflation, budget cuts and laid-off and furloughed federal workers.
“This will become a disaster, right? If we don’t stand by our entitlement program to keep people fed in November, which is a month that is so much about food and celebration for folks,” Lenarz-Coy said.
The Food Group is urging Congress to immediately release $5 million in federal SNAP contingency funds. According to multiple reports, the Trump administration says it will not do that because it says the funding is for emergencies like natural disasters.
Another possible fix would come if Congress were to pass emergency funding this coming week to keep benefits flowing. But to do that, Speaker Mike Johnson would have to order the House back to Washington, D.C. for a vote. Johnson has said he might do that if the U.S. Senate first votes on funding.
Meanwhile, local food shelves say they don’t know what will happen if Minnesotans lose their benefits later this week.
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