Ahmad fled Afghanistan with his wife and children in December 2021, traveling through Tajikistan and Germany before arriving in the United States and moving to Chicago. He had spent six years working alongside the U.S. military as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, and after the Taliban retook Kabul in August 2021, he said militants came to his home and threatened his family. Remaining in the country no longer felt safe.
The family settled in Hyde Park in early 2022, drawn by a close friend who had arrived years earlier and hoped to build a community in the neighborhood. After arriving, the Hyde Park Refugee Project (HPRP) connected them with an apartment, enrolled the children in school and matched them with volunteers who helped with tutoring, doctor’s appointments and the endless bureaucratic demands of starting over in a new country.
That help has been “everything,” Ahmad said.
Now, more than three years after arriving in Hyde Park, Ahmad and his family are facing an impossible choice between paying rent and buying food after losing access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the federal food assistance program formerly known as food stamps.
The benefits had helped the family of eight afford their grocery bills while scraping by on a tight budget. Ahmad said they occasionally sent some money back to family members in Afghanistan struggling amid the country’s ongoing economic crisis. (Ahmad is a pseudonym; the family asked not to be identified by name for fear of retaliation.)
Ahmad said he works eight hours a day as a painter before driving for Uber or Lyft at night. But as gas prices skyrocket, his rideshare work barely brings in extra income. The family earns roughly $3,000 a month. After paying about $2,150 in rent, they are left with roughly $850 for food, utilities and other expenses, including his eldest son’s graduation suit.
Ahmad described frequent trips to Aldi and Costco for groceries and household supplies, saying it costs “a lot of money.”
As families grapple with the loss of benefits, the Hyde Park Refugee Project is trying to help fill the gap through fundraising and direct assistance.
The group is hosting “Music and Bites for Refugee Support” from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave. The event will feature folk musician Mark Dvorak, a longtime faculty member at the Old Town School of Folk Music, along with a sampling of traditional Afghan food.
The need for the event stems from changes included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the Trump administration’s sweeping economic and health care policy package passed by Congress last July. The law eliminated SNAP eligibility for refugees, asylum-seekers and survivors of human trafficking who have not yet become legal permanent residents. In total in Illinois, roughly 16,000 people lost benefits as of April 1, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services.
As many as 10,000 asylees, refugees and humanitarian parolees in Illinois may also lose Medicaid coverage beginning in October because of changes to eligibility requirements.
For Ahmad’s family, the loss of SNAP benefits comes at an especially difficult time.
His eldest son, a soccer player at Kenwood Academy, plans to attend the University of Illinois Chicago this fall with hopes of transferring to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign after his first year. Although his eldest son received a scholarship covering tuition, Ahmad estimates the family will still spend about $10,000 a year on books, bus fare and other expenses. Several more of the couple’s children are preparing for university in the years ahead.
Ahmad said he’s thought about adding more shifts driving for Uber and Lyft but is already exhausted.
“Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy,” Ahmad said. “I need money.”
The family’s path to permanent residency has also stalled. Ahmad said their green card case was put on hold last fall, though he recently received an email suggesting some movement in the application process.
“The case is stopped because of Trump,” Ahmad said.
Julie Spielberger, a volunteer with the HPRP who tutors the children several days a week, said the sudden loss of benefits has hit the family hard.
“If they knew in six months they were going to lose food subsidies, then they could’ve planned for it,” she said.
In December, the Trump administration put a hold on all asylum and green card applications from 19 countries, including Afghanistan. Although the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles those applications, announced in March that it would continue processing them for “thoroughly screened asylum seekers from non-high-risk countries,” it did not say which countries were still considered high risk.
Dorothy Pytel poses at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave., May 14, 2026.
Marc C. Monaghan
The HPRP has worked with dozens of immigrant families in the neighborhood since 2016. Six of the families it currently serves are from Afghanistan. Dorothy Pytel, the organization’s board president and a founding member, said families felt stuck in limbo, uncertain what comes next for their immigration status and financial security.
“They thought they were on a track to becoming independent and becoming self-sufficient and becoming a contributing member of the community, and now they don’t know what’s going to happen,” Pytel said.
The organization has responded by providing cash assistance, connecting families with food pantries, helping them build household budgets and identifying additional work opportunities. But Pytel said it has been difficult to replace the scale of assistance once provided through SNAP, particularly as families struggle to find stable, well-paying jobs.
“When the government programs that they’re eligible for disappear, it’s a very different level of need,” she said.
Pytel said she hopes this weekend’s event offers more than financial support.
“What I’m hoping is that Hyde Park, through this event, experiences the beauty of being together and that we can bring joy to each other,” she said.
“Music and Bites for Refugee Support” will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave. Tickets are available at hprpchicago.org.