By Ronin Sanders
On October 1st 2025 another government shutdown hit the United States thanks to an impasse between the Democrats and Republicans in Congress’s over appropriations legislation for the 2026 fiscal year. As of November 4th this shutdown is tied for the longest shutdown in American history. And now, since November 1st, the lives of poor and working-class people have become pawns in this ongoing fight between the capitalist parties.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as SNAP benefits or “Food Stamps” ran out of funding on November 1st. This vital program feeds nearly 42 million Americans. 1.4 Million of those people live here in Ohio. The Republican Party’s commitment to eviscerating subsidies for 15 million Americans health insurance, Medicaid, and SNAP has dragged the country into another deep crisis. While the politicians focus on using this crisis to fuel their campaign and marketing strategies the reality is the consequences still fall most heavily on the lives of workers.
The crisis of SNAP has played out differently state-to-state. Some state governments have decided to pull from state coffers to temporarily cover the costs to continue providing SNAP to millions of citizens while others have left those they represent out to dry.
In Ohio, Republican Governor Mike DeWine instituted an executive order on October 30th to allocate $25 million in state funds to temporarily cover around 50% of SNAP benefits for beneficiaries. While DeWine puts a bandaid on the problem, it's important to note there is a special “Rainy Day” fund referred to by state politicians as Ohio’s savings account. In this fund is about $3.5 billion dollars that has been saved exactly for situations like this. Typically, in Ohio $263.4 million dollars is allocated per month to our SNAP programs. That means that Mike DeWine’s executive order would cover roughly 10% of the funding needed to cover SNAP for November. With over 3 billion dollars in this fund, it would be possible to allocate some of this money to feed hungry Ohioans throughout the shutdown. Requests for this can be made on Governor Mike DeWine’s website on the Contact Me Page.
With SNAP benefits drastically cut overnight, we are going to have over a million people desperate to find food aid in Ohio. One resource available is a website known as freshtrak.com. This website allows Ohioans to input their zip code and be matched with possible food resources in their area.
This withholding of food from the poor and vulnerable is unforgivable. We must do what we can to support one another because it has been clear that the federal government will not. Even before the shutdown, SNAP benefits were insufficient to deal with the hunger crisis in the richest country in the world. For decades odious restrictions have been placed on the program to prevent poor people from “exploiting” benefits. Trump’s administration is trying to seal the deal and eviscerate the remnants of this essential social program.
Socialists need to not only demand immediate measures to cover SNAP for all during the government shutdown, but fight for the radical expansion of benefits to all who need them.