SNAP & Poverty
1969
1969-01-01 History Lesson: The Black Panthers started the free breakfast program for children in 1969 because they didn’t want to see kids going to school hungry.
https://www.history.com/articles/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party
2019
2019-11-08 During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Rebecca Friedrichs accused teachers in unions of not really being teachers, but rather “radical socialists pushing an agenda” and only wanting power. She asserted that when unions are pushing for free lunch programs, healthcare, and emotional support, this is all an attempt to replace the family with indoctrination and communism.
2025 January
2025-01-20 Page 303 of Project 2025 aims to direct the USDA to end community eligibility programs and universal free school meals.
Project 2025 calls school meals and programs for more children as “entitlements” and a “waste” of taxpayer money.
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
2025 May
2025-05-06 Trump told the interviewer of Meet the Press that girls don’t need to have 30 dolls, they can have two or three. I hope he was just talking about the rich kids, and not about the ones who go completely without.
2025 July
2025-07-04 The Big Beautiful Bill sharply reduced the number of Americans receiving food stamps or other programs designed to help struggling families.
2025 September
2025-09-08 As outlined on page 299 of Project 2025, cuts to SNAP benefits began. This included school food programs, energy and internet assistance, and funding to the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program (SNAP-ED), to name a few.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/08/trumps-spending-bill-cuts-billions-in-snap-benefits.html
https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/obbb-implementation
2025-09-20 The USDA stopped tracking food insecurity and issued a press release stating the annual Household Food Security Report would be terminated.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/after-cuts-food-stamps-trump-administration-ends-governments-125774270 page is gone
2025 October
2025-10-28 Rob Schmitt commented on Newsmax that there should be a weight limit for receiving SNAP benefits, asked why the people are subsidizing food for people that “weigh 300 pounds”, and claimed that people were “selling their benefits to get their nails done and buy weaves”. He even posted his comments on X.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/newsmax-anchor-claims-americans-using-160133829.html
https://x.com/SchmittNYC/status/1983284055996047650
2025-10-31 Just hours before SNAP benefits were set to expire, Trump hosted a lavish Great Gatsby Halloween party at the White House. This was AFTER Trump donated $40B in taxpayer money to bail out Argentina. This was just BEFORE Trump defied judge orders to release contingency funds set aside to continue SNAP benefits. There are contingency benefits set aside for emergencies (like government shutdowns). Meanwhile, States had to step in to try to make up the difference, and food pantries were absolutely overrun.
2025 November
2025-11-02 Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins played the new pick-me-girl in November when she weighed in on SNAP benefits in an X post, spinning rhetoric of SNAP fraud, attacking blue states, and calling Trump the “new sheriff in town”.
https://x.com/SecRollins/status/1985007736896053318
2025-11-03 Despite judge orders, Trump leveraged SNAP benefits, citing it “could take months” to release them, once saying he’d only release HALF, then going on X and posting he would release none.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-defies-court-snap-ruling
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/g-s1-96296/trump-deadline-contingency-funds-snap
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5596121/snap-food-benefits-trump-government-shutdown
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-administration-partially-fund-snap-months/story?id=127138175
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/04/trump-snap-funding-shutdown-food-aid-00635141
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/07/politics/trump-administration-supreme-court-snap-benefits
2025-11-04 Trump posted on social media that he would not release ANY part of the SNAP funding until the “Radical Left Democrats open up government”.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115492285081397189
2025-11-10 The Agriculture Department threatened to penalize states that didn’t “undo” steps to fully fund SNAP.
https://factkeepers.com/trump-administration-threatens-states-that-dont-undo-full-snap-payments/
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/09/nx-s1-5603417/full-snap-benefits-trump-states-order
2025-11-10 Eight Democratic Senators joined Republicans in a vote to reopen the government without concessions. Also, nobody voted to reroute the $40B sent to bail out Argentina to feed 40 million Americans.
https://time.com/7332610/8-senators-broke-with-democrats-to-end-government-shutdown/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-democrats-vote-end-government-shutdown/
https://meidasnews.com/news/republicans-vote-no-on-using-argentina-bailout-money-for-aca-subsidies