JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A daunting countdown is on for the pause of SNAP benefits for more than 40 million Americans.
The government shutdown will force the agency to stop sending out assistance on Saturday. And nearly 3 million people in Florida rely on that help every day.
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Sherry Call lives in a van parked near a Harveys Supermarket in Jacksonville. She depends on SNAP benefits to buy food — but in just days, those payments will stop.
“I’m homeless too, so that means a lot,” Call said. “It means I’ll be starving. And we’ll have to go to the churches, and there will be people stealing. And robbing. And it’s the holidays.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, says no benefits will be issued on November 1 due to the prolonged government shutdown.
That leaves about 42 million low-income Americans unsure how they’ll pay for groceries next month.
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For Call, the situation feels dire.
“It means a difference in me dying,” she said. “I mean, we’ve got to have food to live.”
Call told Action News Jax she plans to keep panhandling to get by, but she’s running out of hope.
“Worried, concerned, and frustrated,” she said. “We thought Trump was going to be able to fix everything. Of course, he can’t. But this is crazy.”
The USDA has not said when — or if — those benefits will resume.
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