The longest federal government shutdown ever ended on November 12, releasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that the Trump administration had shockingly withheld from 42 million Americans. Funding for the food assistance program is now set to last through September 2026, but for many, the crisis of food security remains.
SNAP’s new work requirements are another barrier, as is the administration’s insistence even after the end of the shutdown that they will “completely deconstruct” the program. Alongside funding cuts, mass layoffs at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), tariffs, and ICE raids decimating farmers and food chains in the country, this means that unreliable access to food is an increasing threat to the wellbeing of millions of Americans.
But we’re seeing that when institutions fail people, grassroots community organizing is the reliable force that delivers. Neighborhood Land Power Project, a Bread & Roses grantee, organizes for neighborhood-rooted food and land systems in West Philadelphia, emphasizing the importance of sustainable farms and food security.
Grantee Reinhard Street Community Farm & Kitchen mobilizes folks to reactivate neglected land and transform those spaces into community resources that build power and literally nourish residents in southwest Philadelphia.
Fellow grantees Asian Americans United, KITHS Integrated and Targeted Human Services, and Children First PA have recently organized campaigns centered on food justice, from food distribution to urging City Hall to retain the soda tax for funding Pre-K services.
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