With state stepping in and shutdown nearing end, some SNAP recipients wary of future disruptions

When Cami Mallory was a child, she was around a food stamp booklet enough that it taught her her colors, then how to count and finally how to add and subtract. She grew up and out of poverty, went to school and became the director of a local nonprofit.

“I did everything right; I did everything they tell you to do,” Mallory said on Friday as she waited in line at the Manzano Mesa Multigenerational Center food pantry in Southeast Albuquerque.

In October, as politicians on Capitol Hill declared no deal and the government shut down, Mallory lost her job.

More than a month later, as the longest-ever government shutdown appears to be coming to an end, people like Mallory who depend on food assistance are wary of future disruptions.

“The executive branch decided to play chicken with starving children, seniors and families like mine,” Mallory said Wednesday referring to President Donald Trump’s attempt to block payments. “And going forward, my family and I, we’re trying to figure out a backup plan in case this happens again.”

Blame for the shutdown, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts, has been traded back and forth between the Democratic minority and Republican majority in Congress.

“Democrats are using SNAP as a political chess piece — it’s that simple,” said Republican Party Chairwoman of New Mexico, Amy Barela. “They are using the entire discussion of SNAP benefits to deflect from the fact that they have voted to keep the government closed for six weeks. New Mexico’s congressional delegation is an embarrassment to our state for failing to execute their basic duties.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich, who was one of the Senate Democrats who held out for Affordable Care Act funding, criticized Republican lawmakers for not following through on the party’s promises of affordability.

“Feeding hungry kids and seniors isn’t a political issue — it’s a moral one,” Heinrich said in a statement Wednesday. “This administration ignored court orders, blocked funds Congress already appropriated and chose to let families go hungry.”

The Roundhouse approved funding for food assistance through mid-January during a special legislative session Monday, but some recipients said Wednesday that they had already seen their benefits slashed in half or more.

Inside Storehouse New Mexico, a food pantry on Broadway SE near Downtown, mother and daughter Rosa Esparza and Estrella Mendoza sat in the lobby Wednesday waiting for their turn to collect groceries. Esparza’s benefits were slashed from $700 to just $170, she said, and the family will have to pool their funds for Thanksgiving this year.

“It’s like a false sense of security,” Mendoza said of the food assistance program. “It’s disappointing.”

Directing a crowd of volunteers in the Storehouse’s signature turquoise blue, Jill Beets pointed to gaps in the warehouse’s walls that would have normally housed surplus beans, rice and canned food.

“It would be unsustainable if charities were to take on the whole load of what SNAP is in our country,” Beets said. “As great as it is that local restaurants are giving some free food to the children and people are coming together to do some amazing things — it’s not to the level that SNAP provides.”

Though the front room was filled with donated milk, meat, pastries and squash from local grocery stores, the backroom’s shelves are more bare than usual. With monetary donations, the Storehouse buys wholesale canned food, most of which comes from outside the country and is being held up by tariffs and uncertainty in the global market, Beets said.

Those delays, paired with more demand, are stretching the food bank thin amid the shutdown.

However, the situation has been dire for a while, Beets said, with prices rising and families struggling to keep up. In 2023, the Storehouse fed approximately 55,000 people, last year it fed nearly 80,000.

The shutdown and the uncertainty it brings is worsening food insecurity, Beets said, and bringing some people to the food bank for the first time.

In October alone, the Storehouse saw 10% more people, which she attributed to government employees working without pay and people preparing for cuts to food assistance. The Storehouse doesn’t have numbers for November, though Beets said she’s seen many more people coming in at the beginning of the month than usual.

Among the new faces are military service members who came to the Storehouse on the advice of their base commanders, as they work without pay, Beets said. More people are also returning who haven’t visited in years, she said.

One of those people is Brenda Marquez who said she hadn’t visited the food bank since 2009, just after the economic recession plunged many Americans into financial trouble.

“It’s scary,” Marquez said. “They’re taking what little things we have and giving them to the rich. It’s not right.”

Marquez has five kids, aged between 17 and 4. Two of them are autistic and require constant care. Her youngest has microcephaly, a birth defect that decreases a child’s head size and can cause severe complications.

“Right now it’s literally medication or food,” said Marquez’s mother, Nicole Lopez, who lives with her own health issues. Lopez was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack the body’s organs.

Health issues, or caring for a sick loved one, were a common cause of food insecurity for those visiting the Storehouse that day.

Connie Sanchez had her SNAP benefits cut from $300 to $115, money she uses to feed herself, her uncle and grandmother who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

“It’s stressful,” Sanchez said of the future of food assistance.

Her grandmother sometimes asks her for things she can’t always provide, Sanchez said.

“’Mijita, do you have coffee?’” Sanchez said her grandmother often asks.

Sanchez does her best to get her grandmother everything she asks for, especially as she is being treated for cancer for the third time and struggles with dementia.

“She just doesn’t understand what’s happening, we have to explain it over and over,” Sanchez said. She loaded spaghetti squash, bread and a birthday cake with colorful sprinkles into her car. “I just don’t need her stressed right now.”

On Wednesday, in reaction to news that the government would likely reopen, Mallory implored people to lean into community rather than political division.

“If we just take the blame game away right now — it doesn’t matter your party affiliation — we can still take care of each other,” Mallory said. “We can still have empathy. It doesn’t matter if you’re voting red or blue, right? Because I think empathy and basic human kindness does not have a party affiliation, it’s just humanity.”