What Happens When SNAP Stops Paying And How We Step Up

We break down how the federal shutdown halts SNAP on November 1 and what that means for families, grocers, and food banks. We share clear, practical steps to donate, volunteer, and pressure lawmakers while cutting through outrage bait.

• scale of SNAP pause and who is affected
• $8 billion November shortfall and back pay limits
• 300% surge at food banks and depletion timelines
• $23 billion retail hit and likely layoffs
• Virginia’s temporary support and EU contrasts
• risks to schools and petty theft projections
• ignoring grifters and outrage bait online
• practical donations: proteins, staples, cash
• how to call Congress and make your voice count
• volunteering locally and working with churches

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Urgent SNAP Alert
• 0:47 Government Shutdown Impact On Benefits
• 2:18 November Shortfall And Economic Ripple
• 5:20 State Responses And EU Comparisons
• 7:04 Food Banks, Schools, And Crime Risks
• 8:00 Calling Out Outrage Bait And Misinformation
• 9:19 Charity Begins At Home: Practical Aid
• 11:15 How To Donate And Avoid Grifters
• 13:00 Closing, Contacts, And Care For Neighbors

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

To the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended off-grid compound high in the mountains. Coming to you from his Florida room in Richmond, Virginia. Neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, Keith.

SPEAKER_00: 0:41

Hey all, this is Keith with the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, October 27, 2025. And on November 1st, just a few short days away, the SNAP program, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program here in the United States, will not be able to send money to the 42 million Americans, one in eight, that receive some level of financial assistance from the U.S. government to purchase food for themselves and their family. November 1st, no money will be placed on the cars, the EBT cards, for those folks to use to purchase food. The government has been shut down for 27 days. Beginning tomorrow, air traffic controllers will not receive a paycheck. Federal law enforcement also has not been receiving a paycheck. And I don't need to get into the details. When the government's shut down, it's not completely shut down. There are certain agencies, Department of Defense, the military still running around, but a lot of the agencies that's role is not critical, absolutely critical to the running of the country on a day-to-day basis, have been shut down and those employees have been furloughed. Now, when the government does open back up, everybody will be able to receive back pay, but that doesn't help someone who's been missing the last couple, three paychecks. So, like I said before, 42 million Americans, one in eight Americans, are on this program. The average is$187 per person. Now that's the average. So a family of four or family of five received much more assistance than the$187. So that's roughly$6 a day. The October benefits have already been paid, 100% on schedule. November 1st, zero goes on the cards in$8 billion shortfall because Congress cannot get their act together and pass a budget. I don't want to get deep into weeds. Left, right, it makes no difference. Come November 1, we're going to have a bunch of hungry people on top of all the folks that are not getting a paycheck. There is$6 billion in emergency SNAP reserves. That's enough for between 60 and 70% of one month's benefits. But according to a few reports, the Trump administration is not going to release that. And of course, that's causing more tension, is if we need more tension. At least 25 states, so exactly half the country, have already frozen SNAP applications, no new applicants, and notified residents of a full suspension come November 1. Pennsylvania stopped issuing benefits on October 16th. Texas, Illinois, Oregon, New Jersey, the same story. The alerts went out, no November payments, and here we are, October 27th. This is what some experts say, and again, experts, so take it with a grain of salt. Food banks, there's one about five minutes from my house, food banks will run out of food within two to three weeks. Some won't last two weeks, some won't last three weeks, some may last just a few days. They've seen a 300% surge in requests to get food from food banks. I think some people have gone a little too far in saying that because of the SNAP benefits being stopped, it's going to lead to a massive amount of people being admitted to local hospitals for malnourishment. I'm not sure what to make of that. I'm not a nutritionist, but I think that might be a little early to start making those claims. But we'll see. One out of four people that receive the benefits are disabled. Many of them are elderly. When these folks are not able to go to the grocery stores with their government assistance to purchase food, that is approximately a$23 billion shortfall for the month that's going to hit the grocers and it's going to hit the farmers, and then further down the line. I don't think that's something that most folks have really thought through. That if you don't have money to go to the store to buy things, one, you go hungry. And two, that product is going to sit on the shelves and not able to be sold. So again, a potential$23 billion deficit or shortfall. That money is not going to the grocery stores if this continues through the month of November. The governor of Virginia, Glenn Yunkin, there's a surplus, a budget surplus here in Virginia. He has declared a state of emergency, and he is using$150 million from the surplus to keep SNAP flowing to the state's$850,000 recipients. Now that's going to get them mostly through the month, but not completely through the month. And I haven't read any details. I'm not sure if the budget surplus is going to an individual family and they're only going to fund, let's say, 75% of what they normally get per month. So they need to cut back and be a little more frugal, or the family is going to get the full amount. Now, Virginia's plan, I mean, I'm glad there's a budget surplus. I'm glad the governor's stepping up. It's basically just a band-aid on a gunshot wound. It's going to help for a very short period of time. So in looking in the EU about what some other countries have, and folks in the EU, keep me honest, if I mess it up, send me an email and tell me how bad I screwed it up. But in France, low-income families get cash, not vouchers. Roughly 1,000 euro a month for a single family with two kids. You don't have to wait in line at a food bank, you get your money. In Sweden, every child gets 125 euros, rich or poor, makes no difference. Their food insecurity, it's kind of a malleable term. It means different things for different people depending on how you define it. But in Sweden, their food insecurity is less than 3%. And again, multiple definitions on how that is actually defined. I guess that makes sense. Multiple definitions on how things are defined. That's the definition of the word definition. I'm just really confusing myself here. The EU has a fund, it's called FEAD, that gives food parcels to 12.5 million people a year, but it's a backup plan. It's not part of the main plan. So here's the timeline as I see it and what some research has shown. Grocers are going to have to lay off cashiers and lay off the kids that stock the shelves. Again, we have a huge surge in demand at food banks. They'll run dry fairly quickly. Schools will start asking for donations because a lot of the school lunch program is funded by the federal government. And I haven't heard if that's going to be cut off or not. I wouldn't think the school lunch program would suffer because of EBT, but I'll look into that. Some crime experts say that petty theft from grocery stores, convenience stores will rise between 20 and 30 percent. Now, let me get up on my soapbox. All these influencers, or whatever you want to call them on TikTok that are raising holy hell about the government taking their money and how they deserve it. It's a handout. One lady who is a what they call a rage, a rage baiter, they throw crap out there just to see what sticks, just to get people involved, just to get clicks on their story. I can't remember the exact details, but she's all upset that she had to sell her 2022 Range Rover and her 2024 BMW so she could get money to buy groceries. That's a bunch of crap. And the only reason she put that out there is so people will comment, oh, if you can afford a BMW or a Range Rover, you don't need government assistance. I'm a hard-working American, I go to work every day and I don't have a BMW. You see what I'm getting at? It's just a way to ramp things up and get people upset for really no reason when it comes to this lady. So I take everything that people say on these little videos with a grain of salt. Actually, I just scroll past them because I don't want to hear somebody bitch and moan about a potential situation that really doesn't even exist for them, just so they can get a couple clicks. Like I said before, the government employees are gonna get back pay. And the families, in the event Snap does not start on November 1, they will then be reimbursed for the weeks that they were out. So if they go 10 days in November, that 10 days will be added further down the line. So they'll still get the full amount, but it's gonna take some time. I have said before that charity begins at home. And I certainly believe that. I believe that it is my responsibility to take care of myself and to take care of my family. I will take care of my family first, then myself, and then depending on the situation, I will provide money, material goods for donations, that sort of thing. This is a situation where, as preppers, if we have prepped, if we're doing what we're supposed to do or what we think is necessary, given our particular situation in whatever part of the country or world you are in, and everybody's different, I get it. We have the ability of making donations. If you have the discretionary income, go to Walmart, go to Dollar Tree, go somewhere and get 15 or 20 cans of food, get a 50-pound bag of rice, get some peanut butter, get some tuna, get some canned salmon, get some chili, get some beans, get whatever, and drop it off at a local food bank. If you have the ability of making a cash donation, give 10 or 20 bucks to the local food bank. They can stretch that and make$10 turn into several different meals for these families. Don't be afraid to call DC. Don't be afraid to call your senators or your representative and tell them what you think about this situation. You can Google whoever your senator is, whoever your congressman is, and you get the number to their office. You can call and speak to a staffer, you can leave a voicemail, you can email. Something I would encourage everybody to do. And I know what you're saying. Well, what is my little voicemail going to do to help the situation? Well, if everybody said that, there'd be no voicemails when they came in tomorrow morning. But if everybody did that, there'd be 35,000. And with 35,000 people blow up your phone and leave voicemails, they're going to listen. They want to get re-elected, they want to do the right thing. And again, I trust all the politicians in DC, left, right, middle, all combined, I trust them as far as I can throw them. Consider volunteering at a food bank with this huge surge and request, they might need some help. Don't fall for the grifters, don't fall for the folks with fake outrage just because they want clicks, they're running ads, they want to sell crypto. Be very careful about where you provide your money or where you provide your donations. Me personally, I will drop off food at the local food bank and physically hand it to somebody. I'm sure that local churches are ramping up with donations so they can provide food to folks in their congregation on the Snap program. Normally, churches do that anyway for folks who cannot afford it. So I'm sure that they're putting donations together for their parishioners that are on Snap, as well as friends. Talk to your neighbors, talk to your friends. I bet you you have friends who know people that are on Snap. Some of you listening to me right now may be on Snap, or you know people that need assistance. Please donate if you can. If you can't, I get it. You need to take care of yourself, you need to take care of your family. But if you have five bucks, if you have ten bucks, my suggestion would be and you guys are free to do exactly whatever you want to with your money. Please don't get me wrong. I am not telling anybody how they should spend their money. But I am very fortunate. I have extra food. Remember, we talked about the corn index. I've got cans of corn that are probably within six months of expiring. And again, even after it expires, it's still good. So again, first in, first out, I'm gonna grab some corn, some green beans. I'll check the pantry here later on tonight or tomorrow morning, and I'm gonna drop that off. Feedingamerica.org is also a nonprofit you can explore, look into, investigate, see if it's something you want to contribute to. But this is a situation where these folks are gonna be hurting, and it's no fault of their own. The jackwads in DC can't get their thumbs out of their butts and get things solved. Those folks are gonna suffer. I don't like to see people suffer. I believe those who truly need government assistance to get a leg up temporary while they in between jobs or whatever their individual situations might be, I believe that's a good program. Folks that are disabled and cannot work, they're on disability, they're on SNAP, all sorts of government programs. Those folks, it is not their fault that potentially on November 1st, they will not have money on their debit card or on their EBT card to purchase those items that they need basically to survive. All right, folks, I'm gonna get off my soapbox. I appreciate everybody stopping by. Practicalprep podcast at gmail.com. Folks in the EU, if I got your social programs wrong, please let me know. Practicalprep podcast at gmail.com. I'm all over the Twitter. And again, folks, as always, be careful out there, and especially take care of one another, and until next time.

SPEAKER_01: 14:40

Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. While you're at it, help spread the word by leaving a rating and review.