Hundreds of people lined up for emergency food giveaways all over Chicago, faced with no other option due to the government shutdown. 

They, like millions of Illinoisans, were recipients of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP. However, their benefits were put on hold after a legal back-and-forth between the Trump administration and the courts.

When people pull up to the Greater Chicago Food Depository drive outside Saint Sabina Church at 1120 W. 79th St. in Auburn Gresham, they are certain they will get a box of shelf staples, milk, and bread. But once they take off, they are left with uncertainty.

None of them knows when they will get the SNAP benefits they need to buy food.

“Nothing, I didn’t get nothing this month,” Anthony Miller said.

Miller said he was supposed to see nearly $300 on his link card on November 1.

“It’s confusing and Trump don’t want to release it, and that’s why he’s taking it to court, and it don’t make no sense at all that we got to starve out here, and he did it at the time of Thanksgiving,” he said.

“We really feel for our neighbors who are SNAP participants.” Camerin Mattson said.

Mattson with the food depository said they must do these weekly emergency food drives this month. The people showing up either have some or no SNAP benefits from the federal government. She said no one knows when those will be restored. 

“We are trying to lean in and get as much information as possible, but there was a Supreme Court ruling late last night, so it’s constantly changing,” Mattson said.

As of Saturday, the Illinois Department of Human Services said they are giving SNAP recipients partial payments. They said the Trump administration has not complied with court orders, so they cannot provide full SNAP benefits in November.

“There’s a lot of complex decisions that states have to make in this moment with really imperfect information,” said Jimmy Chen, CEO of Propel app. 

Chen said while some states can give recipients full benefits, others, like Illinois, have decided to give partial payments. That’s based on the money they get from the USDA, but they also need to wait and see what comes out of pending court cases.

“They don’t want to risk any liability doing something that’s out of bounds,” Chen said.

Human Services said they are ready to quickly issue full benefits. That’s as soon as the Trump administration fulfills the court order and transfers the money. Human Services is also reminding people with benefits left on their cards from previous months that those benefits can still be used.

 

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