SNAP benefits have run out. What now?
Patrons wait to receive non-perishable goods from the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in Champaign Friday, Oct. 31. A. Oishii Basu/Illinois Student Newsroom
For the first time since the program's inception in 1964, money for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has run dry. SNAP Benefits, once known as food stamps, help support nearly two million Illinoisans with food purchase assistance. The figure is one in eight Americans at the national level. That all came to a halt amid the ongoing — and now-record-breaking — government shutdown.
What are the broader implications of this for people and the economy? Experts and the head of one Illinois food bank weigh in.
GUESTS
Gina Plata-Nino
SNAP Director, Food Research and Action Center
Doug McFarlan
Director, Grace Lutheran Food Pantry
Karl Goeke
President, Illinois Education Association
Alec Laird
Senior Vice President of Government Relations, Illinois Retail Merchants Association
Jeremy Rosen
Director of Economic Justice, Shriver Center on Poverty Law
