I’m a Journalist on SNAP. Here’s What I Saw During the Latest Food Crisis.
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Current Issue
The Weekend Read
/ February 21, 2026
I’m a Journalist on SNAP. Here’s What I Saw During the Latest Food Crisis.
As for virtually all SNAP recipients, my benefits have never been enough to cover monthly food expenses. Meanwhile, Trump calls any food aid at all “un-American.”
Gabbriel Schivone
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Campus Pantry in midtown Tucson in November of 2025, where staff are setting up before opening hours.(Gabb Schivone)
When I arrived at the food distribution center on a weekday afternoon, the line looked like it was a hundred people long. It brought to mind a photo of a bread line from the Great Depression era.
This piece was produced in collaboration with Changewire.
But it was just a normal day at the Campus Pantry, a nonprofit food center in midtown Tucson, Arizona—within the abnormal circumstances of national politics. Several hundred people a day visit this location (a 119 percent jump since 2019), according to data provided by the Pantry—mainly students, but also plenty of low-wage workers on the University of Arizona (UofA) campus.
Although I’ve regularly visited this food center for years—one of several in the area, which range from religious to anarchist to more of a secular nonprofit model like this one—on this particular day, I was anxious about having enough food. On October 24, 2025, I had received a notification that I had been dreading: I was informed that my November food assistance (SNAP) would not be issued, although I had been approved through summer 2026.
Like 42 million other Americans, I was being cut off from federal assistance for basic nutritional needs. Under the insignia for the Arizona Department of Economic Security, the missive from the Family Assistance Administration read:
The United States Department of Agriculture has instructed states to hold the issuance of November 2025 NA benefits until further notice. November NA benefits will not be available on EBT cards until federal funding is available to states.
The United States Department of Agriculture has instructed states to hold the issuance of November 2025 NA benefits until further notice. November NA benefits will not be available on EBT cards until federal funding is available to states.
Ever since the government had shut down in October of 2025 over a fight to extend healthcare subsidies that were about to expire—the longest government shutdown in US history, surpassing the previous record set during the first Trump administration in 2016—rumor had it that food aid, as a government subsidy for those who don’t have enough to eat, would stop next as government workers were furloughed …
Notice what's missing.
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I’m a Journalist on SNAP. Here’s What I Saw During the Latest Food Crisis.
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Current Issue
The Weekend Read
/ February 21, 2026
I’m a Journalist on SNAP. Here’s What I Saw During the Latest Food Crisis.
As for virtually all SNAP recipients, my benefits have never been enough to cover monthly food expenses. Meanwhile, Trump calls any food aid at all “un-American.”
Gabbriel Schivone
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Campus Pantry in midtown Tucson in November of 2025, where staff are setting up before opening hours.(Gabb Schivone)
When I arrived at the food distribution center on a weekday afternoon, the line looked like it was a hundred people long. It brought to mind a photo of a bread line from the Great Depression era.
This piece was produced in collaboration with Changewire.
But it was just a normal day at the Campus Pantry, a nonprofit food center in midtown Tucson, Arizona—within the abnormal circumstances of national politics. Several hundred people a day visit this location (a 119 percent jump since 2019), according to data provided by the Pantry—mainly students, but also plenty of low-wage workers on the University of Arizona (UofA) campus.
Although I’ve regularly visited this food center for years—one of several in the area, which range from religious to anarchist to more of a secular nonprofit model like this one—on this particular day, I was anxious about having enough food. On October 24, 2025, I had received a notification that I had been dreading: I was informed that my November food assistance (SNAP) would not be issued, although I had been approved through summer 2026.
Like 42 million other Americans, I was being cut off from federal assistance for basic nutritional needs. Under the insignia for the Arizona Department of Economic Security, the missive from the Family Assistance Administration read:
The United States Department of Agriculture has instructed states to hold the issuance of November 2025 NA benefits until further notice. November NA benefits will not be available on EBT cards until federal funding is available to states.
The United States Department of Agriculture has instructed states to hold the issuance of November 2025 NA benefits until further notice. November NA benefits will not be available on EBT cards until federal funding is available to states.
Ever since the government had shut down in October of 2025 over a fight to extend healthcare subsidies that were about to expire—the longest government shutdown in US history, surpassing the previous record set during the first Trump administration in 2016—rumor had it that food aid, as a government subsidy for those who don’t have enough to eat, would stop next as government workers were furloughed …
I’m a Journalist on SNAP. Here’s What I Saw During the Latest Food Crisis.
Notice what's missing.
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I’m a Journalist on SNAP. Here’s What I Saw During the Latest Food Crisis.
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Subscribe
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Magazine
Latest
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Economy
Culture
Books & the Arts
The Nation
About
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Current Issue
The Weekend Read
/ February 21, 2026
I’m a Journalist on SNAP. Here’s What I Saw During the Latest Food Crisis.
As for virtually all SNAP recipients, my benefits have never been enough to cover monthly food expenses. Meanwhile, Trump calls any food aid at all “un-American.”
Gabbriel Schivone
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Campus Pantry in midtown Tucson in November of 2025, where staff are setting up before opening hours.(Gabb Schivone)
When I arrived at the food distribution center on a weekday afternoon, the line looked like it was a hundred people long. It brought to mind a photo of a bread line from the Great Depression era.
This piece was produced in collaboration with Changewire.
But it was just a normal day at the Campus Pantry, a nonprofit food center in midtown Tucson, Arizona—within the abnormal circumstances of national politics. Several hundred people a day visit this location (a 119 percent jump since 2019), according to data provided by the Pantry—mainly students, but also plenty of low-wage workers on the University of Arizona (UofA) campus.
Although I’ve regularly visited this food center for years—one of several in the area, which range from religious to anarchist to more of a secular nonprofit model like this one—on this particular day, I was anxious about having enough food. On October 24, 2025, I had received a notification that I had been dreading: I was informed that my November food assistance (SNAP) would not be issued, although I had been approved through summer 2026.
Like 42 million other Americans, I was being cut off from federal assistance for basic nutritional needs. Under the insignia for the Arizona Department of Economic Security, the missive from the Family Assistance Administration read:
The United States Department of Agriculture has instructed states to hold the issuance of November 2025 NA benefits until further notice. November NA benefits will not be available on EBT cards until federal funding is available to states.
The United States Department of Agriculture has instructed states to hold the issuance of November 2025 NA benefits until further notice. November NA benefits will not be available on EBT cards until federal funding is available to states.
Ever since the government had shut down in October of 2025 over a fight to extend healthcare subsidies that were about to expire—the longest government shutdown in US history, surpassing the previous record set during the first Trump administration in 2016—rumor had it that food aid, as a government subsidy for those who don’t have enough to eat, would stop next as government workers were furloughed …
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