Help Families Facing Tough Choices
Your Impact: Every $1 helps provide 7 pounds of nutritious food.
As the federal shutdown continues, many families and federal workers are missing paychecks and facing tough choices between rent, utilities, and food. Your gift today helps provide nourishing meals and hope to neighbors across the 24 counties (14 counties in NC and 10 counties in SC) served by Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina.
Together, we make sure no one must face hunger alone.
How will a shutdown affect federal nutrition programs?
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): A shutdown has the potential to disrupt SNAP benefits for families if there is a lack of funding, a delay in processing benefits, or both. As food prices remain high, confusion around SNAP benefit timing or the sudden loss of this grocery purchasing support would jeopardize food access for roughly 42 million people who receive support from SNAP in the U.S.
- USDA Commodity Food Purchases and Administrative Funds: During a shutdown, families lose access to essential food from the USDA. Food banks cannot place new food orders through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) or the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and TEFAP storage and distribution funds for fiscal year 2026 will be delayed. This slows the order and delivery of USDA foods, impacting families who need them and the farmers who sell them to USDA. Additionally, food deliveries and administrative funds for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) could be disrupted. During previous shutdowns, FDPIR sites facing funding gaps were forced to furlough workers, which had a cascading impact that interrupted food deliveries and distributions to individuals and families.
- Special Supplementary Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): The WIC Program currently serves nearly 6.9 million pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children in the U.S. A shutdown that disrupts nutrition benefits and other WIC services would put young children at risk of hunger during a time of critical developmental importance.
- Child Nutrition Programs: A prolonged shutdown threatens the timing of funding reimbursements and general support for child nutrition programs, including school breakfast and lunch as well as after school meals provided through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), due to the impact of federal workers being furloughed.
Serving Our Neighbors in 24 Counties
