As of Nov. 1, more than 75,000 Lane County residents have lost access to their SNAP benefits.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has provided food aid to one in five Lane County residents for years, until the government shutdown led to a funding shortage.
Benefits for SNAP users across the country renew on the first of every month. But this month, nothing came in.
At a press conference in Eugene on Saturday, Democratic lawmakers and local advocates spoke out against the Trump administration’s inaction and voiced their support for Oregonians in need.
“Just about everybody is helping with this except Donald Trump,” Senator Ron Wyden repeatedly said during the conference. “Time for Donald Trump to step up and stop blocking what his own administration says.”
Wyden, joined by Congresswoman Val Hoyle, will return to the Capitol to work on restoring the program’s benefits.
“I’m going back to D.C. this week so that I can try to pull together my Republican colleagues to do something about hungry people in the United States,” Hoyle said. “But know this. The money is there. The will is there to come to some kind of agreement.”
The trip comes after two federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must pay SNAP benefits despite the ongoing government shutdown.
Trump has responded by asking the courts for clarity on his administration’s legal authority to pay the benefits.
With the status of the program’s funding now in limbo, SNAP benefits will be delayed for those requiring food aid, who will now have to seek other avenues for assistance. But food banks, pantries and boxes will struggle to meet demand.
Executive Director of Head Start of Lane County, Charleen Strauch, said the cuts have created anxiety for the families who use the nonprofit’s services, and the staff itself.
“We have staff inside Head Start that are also on SNAP benefits,” she said. “It's the people you see in the grocery store, the person pumping your gas, people in the restaurants. It's people in your school district, teachers. It's people within our community that this impacts.”
One of the people affected spoke at the conference: Shawnté Matteson, a mother of five. She said her family’s financial struggles began during the pandemic and will be exacerbated by the SNAP cuts.
“This delay or downright denial of these benefits is going to cost my family, maybe months of setback after we've taken five years to get to where we are. And I was pretty proud of where we were,” Matteson said. “My heart is broken looking at the situation and thinking about all of the families surrounding me going into the cold holiday season (with) this added unnecessary stress put on their shoulders.”
She said she felt some relief after the judge’s decision, but knew she and her husband would still have to find a way to put food on the table.
Matteson and Strauch both emphasized that, despite the SNAP benefit suits, Lane County residents in need should still look for other resources for food assistance. Matteson has seen many situations where people are embarrassed to sign up for assistance.
“A lot of people don't realize that they could qualify for these benefits too. Because of those stereotypes, they're too proud and they don't want that stigma of trying to pay for their groceries with a food benefits card,” she said. “But there’s a lot of us out there where your life’s hard right now, but you’re going to make it because you’re fighting for it.”
For more information on available food pantries and meal sites, or how to donate food in Lane County, visit foodforlanecounty.org.
