Food banks are in ‘disaster response mode’ due to shutdown and SNAP cuts, leaders say
“Neighbors need food NOW” home page Second Harvest Food Bank of South Louisiana reader.
Amid uncertainty over SNAP funding, food banks across the U.S. are scrambling to fill the gap for the 42 million Americans who depend on the food assistance program.
SNAP payments have been paused since November 1 due to the government shutdown. A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore full funding for the program by Nov. 7. The administration quickly appealed the decision and on Friday asked for it to be immediately blocked.
As the larger legal battle continues, many states have said they have begun processing full food stamp payments. The New York Times reported.
CNBC Make It spoke with leaders of several food banks about how they are responding to challenges caused by SNAP cuts and the government shutdown.
Brian Greene, president and CEO Houston Food Bankdescribes the situation as a “rolling disaster”.
Greene says SNAP payments are generally distributed on a staggered monthly schedule in Texas; That means an additional 125,000 Texans have run out of EBT funds every day since the beginning of November.
As the shutdown drags on, an increasing number of furloughed federal workers in Houston are turning to food banks for help, Greene says.
“Every day this goes on, the damage gets worse,” he says.
We face ‘a huge increase in need’
According to CEO Leslie Bacho Silicon Valley’s Second HarvestThe effects of the SNAP cut are already becoming clear.
Bacho says more than 168,000 people within his service area in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties rely on CalFresh, California’s version of SNAP.
More than 1,500 unique users visited the bank’s online site on Monday alone foraging toolIt’s a system that connects people to nearby food distribution sites, according to Bacho. This is almost twice the normal volume.
He says there has also been a 200% increase in referral requests on the helpline.
“We’re in the process of ordering additional food and really trying to ramp up what we think will be a huge increase in need,” Bacho says.
Jon Toups, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of South Louisiana, says his organization was “stretched” even before the SNAP delays.
He says the Louisiana legislature stepped in to help provide reserve funds to SNAP users, but USDA cuts earlier this year led to supply shortages for food banks.
Toups says there’s “no doubt” there has been an increase in demand for food aid in the past week, and “we’re seeing a lot of concern.”
Toups says for every meal food banks provide, SNAP provides nine meals, creating an even larger gap of need for banks to fill.
“The closure puts an additional burden on the food bank network at a time when we can least afford it,” he says.
How are food banks responding?
About 425,000 Houston households rely on SNAP, and to meet their typical needs, the Houston Food Bank needs to double its production, Greene says.
They are currently using all available resources – Greene told the bank’s purchasing team they will “spend how much” [they] spending is needed” – with the aim of increasing output by around 50%.
Right now, the Houston Food Bank is in “disaster response mode,” Greene says.
they founded private distribution sites It specifically targets federal workers and SNAP users in city parking lots, including Houston’s NRG Stadium.
Houston residents line up in their cars for a special free food distribution by Houston Food Bank at NRG Stadium on November 1, 2025 in Houston, Texas.
Mark Felix | AFP | Getty Images
It costs about $15,000 to set up one of these “supersites,” Greene says, and “they attract more volunteers and pay a lot of extra expenses.”
At Second Harvest Food Bank South Louisiana, Toups said he requested that a “pretty significant” amount of the bank’s reserve funds be used to purchase more food.
She’s also working to spread the word about the food bank’s situation.
“Our community has really stepped up. We’ve seen an increase in donations, not just financially but time-wise, which is huge for us,” he says.
Yet staff are “full at the moment,” he says: “It almost feels like I’m asking them to work 24/7 to stay out of this.”
“We will always do our best,” says Toups, but their current situation is “not sustainable.”
Bacho says Second Harvest Silicon Valley is in “drop-it-all mode” and is trying to allocate 15% more food to each of its distribution sites.
Most importantly, with the charitable food system already “very, very strained,” the last thing Bacho wants is for people in need to worry that the banks will run out of food.
“Whether that involves tapping into our reserves, whether it involves getting more revenue from our community, whether it involves greater partnerships with our counties, we will do everything we can to meet this increase in need,” he says.
Still ‘at the very beginning’ of the crisis
Both Toups and Greene liken the current situation to the aftermath of a natural disaster; but in those cases, “the federal government was there to help,” Greene says.
“In this case, the federal government is the cause, not the solution,” he says.
Right now, local donations are keeping many food banks and charities afloat, according to Greene.
“If philanthropy continues, we can keep this going for a while,” he says, but “in a crisis, philanthropy increases rapidly but quickly rebounds.”
According to Toups, there are several ways people can support food banks right now.
Food banks primarily need cash donations. It’s the “most efficient” way to help, he says, “because it allows me to use that money to do exactly what’s needed at that moment.”
Volunteers can also help food banks with tasks like sorting donations, packing boxes and distributing food, she says.
At the end of the day, “we need to get back to some normalcy,” Toups says.
According to Bacho, we are currently “only at the beginning of this crisis”. He says the demand for food banks will only increase as the days without SNAP funding go by.
“We need this man-made problem in Washington D.C. to resolve itself,” Toups says.
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