Natalie Weber / Houston Public Media
Volunteers load food into a car at a Houston Food Bank special distribution site for SNAP beneficiaries and federal workers on Nov. 1, 2025.
With her two dogs Luna and Mekito in tow, Itzel Perez waited in her car for roughly three hours Saturday morning at a Houston Food Bank distribution site for SNAP beneficiaries and federal workers.
Perez was among thousands of people who came to NRG Stadium to receive groceries on the first day that funding was frozen for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), because of the ongoing government shutdown. Two federal judges last week ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funding for the safety net program, which serves about 1 in 8 Americans, but it was unclear Monday when SNAP benefits would be paid again.
Perez, a stay-at-home wife who was born with spina bifida, got a call telling her that her benefits had been cut off.
“There are other people that cannot work, or they have disabilities also,” she said. “There’s other people that are probably more in need than I am.”
Roughly 42 million Americans rely on SNAP food stamps every month.
In Houston, about 425,000 households use the program, according to Houston Food Bank CEO Brian Greene.
In response to the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, the Houston Food Bank commenced part of its plan to provide food assistance to Houstonians for the entire month of November. The food bank plans to continue until the end of the government shutdown, hosting several special distribution sites per week.
“This is part of the response that we’re doing to try to ramp up to help these families who have not been paid now, for a paycheck plus and now the SNAP households,” Greene said.
In addition to the supersite, 300 area pantries are providing produce, dairy and disaster/emergency boxes in bulk.
“The main thing we’re trying to do is trying to maximize how much this is worth to those households, how much money we can save them,” Greene said.
Amanda Grosdidier is the executive director for the Houston Texans Foundation.
The NFL team, a longtime partner of the food bank and primary tenant of the stadium, helped hand out food along with hundreds of Houston Food Bank volunteers.
Grosdidier attributes their ability to provide their resources and help immediately to the foundation’s fundraising and the leadership of the McNair family, which owns the Texans.
“As soon as they called us to say that this was an unavoidable thing that’s there and it’s an emergency, that these families need this, we wanted to make sure we could help,” Grosdidier said.
Althea Coley arrived at the food bank site around 6 a.m. Saturday to get food for her 10-year-old granddaughter, who normally receives $200 in SNAP benefits per month.
“I’m just making sure that I can stock up, so that she will have enough food when it’s time to go to school next week, because there are no benefits on the card,” she said.
With SNAP benefits on hold, Coley said she may have to cut back in other areas.
“I still have bills to pay,” she said. “I have (my) electricity bill, I have rent, stuff like that. I have to do maintenance for the car. So not having the SNAP is a big dent.”
When Coley first arrived at the stadium Saturday morning, she said the line stretched back to a nearby traffic light and there were already too many cars to count.
“We hope the government opens up soon, because as you see, a lot of people are affected,” she said. “And this is not even a fraction.”