SNAP Shock And The Ripple Effect

We unpack how a SNAP shutdown ripples from checkout lines to farms, factories and flights, and why local action buys time when policy stalls. We pledge all November affiliate proceeds to the Chesterfield Food Bank and share concrete ways to help now.

• correction on school food donations versus lunch funding
• pledge to donate 100% of November affiliate proceeds to Chesterfield Food Bank
• theory on bipartisan votes to reopen the government
• impact of halted SNAP: $8B grocery loss and $12–$15B GDP gap
• stress on FAA and air traffic delays
• private sector responses: waived fees, meal drives, restaurant initiatives
• perishable chain effects: milk dumping, egg surplus, chicken capacity limits
• commodity pressure on corn, soy and wheat feeding costs
• state-level shocks: Texas, Oregon, Nevada numbers
• food banks surging and how to support them

100% of the proceeds of anything that I get through my affiliate link through August and Farms will go to the Chesterfield County Food Bank, which is about 10 minutes from my house

https://augasonfarms.com?sca_ref=9315862.VpHzogdDNu

Augason Farms
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Chapters

• 0:17 Welcome And Corrections
• 1:17 Donating Affiliate Proceeds To Food Bank
• 2:15 Political Theory On Ending Shutdown
• 2:49 SNAP Halt And GDP Shock
• 4:27 FAA Strain And Private Aid
• 5:13 The Food Chain Ripple Begins
• 6:02 State-Level Impacts And Numbers
• 7:59 Hidden Multipliers And Community Help
• 8:49 Chickens, Eggs, And Capacity Limits
• 9:49 How To Help And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 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_01: 0:41

Hey all this is Keith, and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, October 29th, 2025. And a quick correction on my last podcast, I was talking about schools requesting food, and I was tying that into the school lunch program. Well, actually, what is happening is the school is requesting donations for food to help bridge the gap for those kids whose family are in the SNAP program that are not going to have money to pay for their food. So they want to have the extra food to either send home with the kids or give the kids breakfast or a little bit extra at lunch. Another thing, real quick, you all know that I'm part of the August and Farms affiliate program, and there'll be a commercial midway through the podcast that will talk about the affiliate link. I have decided for the month of November, regardless if the government is still closed or open, regardless of what happens, I am going to donate 100% of the proceeds from the affiliate link to the Chesterfield Food Bank. Now, quick note about the affiliate link if you're not familiar with it. It takes you to the website, the prices are the same. When you order something using the affiliate link, it's linked back to my account. So I get credit for it in a sense. So if you spend$10 using the affiliate link, it's the same as if you're spending$10 and not using it. I get a small commission, and again, 100% of the commission of the proceeds will go to the Chesterfield Food Bank, and I'm running that through November. If the government opens tomorrow, I'm still going to donate all of that at the end of November to the Chesterfield Food Bank. So Tim Burchett, a congressman from Tennessee, his theory is this. He said that behind closed doors, Chuck Schumer is going to pick the five Democrats that will go across the aisle and vote with the Republicans. Now he'll tell them that he's going to have to admonish them in public, call them all sorts of names, whatever he happens to do. But behind the scenes, they're going over to vote with his blessing to end the shutdown. So I'm not sure who the five guinea pigs are going to be. When it happens, just know that the Democrats move those five over just to get the government open. Okay, let's follow up with what's been going on in the last 48 hours or so. So again, come November 1, 42 million Americans lose their benefits. That USDA contingency fund, the several billion dollars that was there, apparently by law, the USDA cannot use that money to bridge the gap for the SNAP benefits. So that money is not going to be spent at the grocery stores. That's roughly$8 billion for the entire month of November. That is not going into the economy in a sense. Every SNAP dollar generates between$1.50 and$1.80 towards the economy. So that is between a$12 and$15 billion GDP gap for the month of November.$15 billion weekly is what the government is not taking in because of the government shutdown. Air traffic controllers have been working six-day mandatory weeks without a paycheck. We're going on 29 days. The FAA has said that delays are four times worse than they were this time last year. A lot of these controllers are calling in sick, which leaves the other controllers to pick up the overtime. DoorDash is donating one million free meals via food banks and zero fees for Snap grocery runs. About 300,000 order. So you can place a DoorDash order with your SNAP benefits. And what they're going to do, they're not going to charge the delivery fees for those people. Lulu's Pizzeria in Pittsburgh, the tips are going to local school lunch programs. Cusina Vitale, they're doubling their Thanksgiving drop-offs that they donate to homeless shelters and food banks. And Maine's Haley's Kitchen, if you order a coffee, they're going to purchase a cup of soup for the homeless and for the people that need it. Again, food banks, the lines are doubling. Sacramento, there was a rush on baby formula, and the stores are out, if not running very low on baby formula. So here again, I'll touch briefly on what I see in the first week. Milk lasts seven to ten days. If folks cannot purchase the milk, it's going to sit there and it's going to spoil. The grocery stores will not have a need to order milk from the dairy farmers. So the dairy farmers literally are going to have to dump that milk. They still have to milk the cows. And if they're not fulfilling milk orders for these grocery stores, they're going to have to dump it. Again, corn futures have already cratered, as well as soy and wheat futures are below what they were in 2019. Corn, soy, wheat that all feeds cattle. Factories who make peanut butter, factories who make ketchup, factories who make barbecue sauce, factories and distribution centers that carry anything that's in your grocery store. If people aren't purchasing it, they're not going to be able to make it. It's this ripple effect that just goes upstream and downstream several different ways. 25% of what Walmart brings in per month is through Snap benefits, relatively low prices, a good selection, and a lot of families that get snap benefits shop at Walmart. The state of Texas has 3.5 million people on Snap. That is a$700 million grocery loss for that state. They get a lot of vegetables, they get a lot of fruits, nobody's there to buy them. Produce companies have no place to sell their fruits and veggies. Nevada, 75,000 people on Snap, about 162 million output drop in the grocery industry. Food banks are scrambling. Oregon, 800,000 plus, 1.2 to 1.4 billion with a B of lost revenue to grocery store. Josephine County, which is the county in Oregon that has the largest population of folks on SNAP, 50% surge in requests for food bank assistance. Nationally, again,$42 million,$12 to$15 billion, not going into the economy, not being counted towards the GDP. So these are some of the hidden multipliers, some of the things that we don't think about when somebody says, oh, no SNAP benefits come November 1, we're all like, well, that sucks. But what we don't think about is the ripple effect. What is going to happen when this money is not injected into the economy? I've said it before. If you have the ability to donate money or to donate food to a food bank, I think that would be a good way to help ease the pain that is going to happen on November 1. And again, I may be completely wrong. This thing may be solved at midnight tonight. It may be solved Friday night. But again, the politicians in DC are playing with people's lives. Neither side is willing to give in. And overall, it's the folks on Snap that will suffer. And in turn, the longer it goes, your grocers, your farmers, be it corn farmers, wheat farmers, dairy farmers, chicken farmers, if someone is not buying Purdue chicken or whatever chicken you happen to purchase, those chickens are just going to sit there. Eggs can be purchased with EBT cars. If nobody's buying a dozen eggs, those eggs are just going to start piling up. The eggs are going to be destroyed. Nobody's going to buy the chicken. So when a chicken processing company sends 10,000 chickens a day to be culled and to be made into chicken breasts and chicken wings and chicken thighs, and nobody's there to buy the chicken, those chickens will probably be culled because these chicken farms have a finite amount of room. If there's 50,000 chickens in this chicken farm, they don't have room for 75,000 chickens. They don't have room for 100,000 chickens. So the 10,000 chickens that we're going to ship off this week are going to stay. So that's going to cause a significant strain on them. Folks, if you need to reach out, practical prep podcast at gmail.com. If you guys have any suggestions on what we can do to help lighten the burden a little bit, I am absolutely all ears. And again, folks, 100% of the proceeds of anything that I get through my affiliate link through August and Farms will go to the Chesterfield County Food Bank, which is about 10 minutes from my house. Whether or not they solve this tonight or whether they solve it December 1st, all that money is going to the local food bank. Alright, folks, thanks for stopping by. I really do appreciate it. And as always, take care of one another, be safe out there, and until next time.

SPEAKER_00: 10:19

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