EDITORIAL: Food in the time of kindness and cruelty

The government shutdown was the excuse, not the cause, for the failure of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to provide scheduled food assistance for 42 million Americans. It was a phony excuse. 

The program known as SNAP has reserve funds for use in an emergency. The Trump administration flatly refused to use that $5 billion reserve to prevent an interruption in the food program that is a lifeline for millions of Americans.

That uncompromising decision was an act of cruelty that should be noted in history as a low point in the functioning of America’s elected government. When a federal court ordered the administration to send overdue food credits to SNAP recipients, the president defied the mandate. Only after another court order did the administration make a grudging and inadequate effort to comply.

This behavior aligns with the hostility to SNAP’s role in the federal safety net that is evident in the administration’s so-called “Big Beautiful” spending bill, which requires substantial cutbacks in the food assistance program to take effect soon after the 2026 midterm elections.

Trump and his supporters have consistently disparaged SNAP as a bloated federal welfare program that benefits more unauthorized immigrants than U.S. citizens. Social media commentators in Trump’s orbit claim, with suspicious uniformity, that 59% of SNAP recipients are illegal immigrants. It’s a uniform falsehood.

Here is what the records of Trump’s own Department of Agriculture say about the makeup of the population that receives SNAP benefits: 96% are citizens; 90% of them were born in the U.S.; undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive SNAP benefits; the 4% of recipients who are not citizens are, according to the USDA, mostly residents of households that have one or more members who are qualified to receive SNAP benefits.

Demographic data show that 40% of SNAP recipients are children; 18% are elderly and 11% are disabled. The majority of those who are capable of working have jobs. With 130% of the federal poverty level being the financial qualification for SNAP benefits, they are the working poor.

As dismaying as the food assistance interruption has been, it has drawn attention to the innate empathy and generosity of much of this society by shining a light on America’s food pantries and food banks. Together they form an indispensable non-government, nonprofit institution whose beneficial impact goes beyond its core mission of feeding the hungry. 

The uncertainty of government food assistance has added importance to the role of food pantries across the country, but they are far more than an emergency backup to federal and state programs. They are local charitable organizations that enhance the quality of living in their communities by providing wholesome food at no cost to families and individuals of limited means.

Unlike SNAP, most food pantries do not have rigid standards for access to their benefits. Some require proof of residency and general income information, while others operate on the principle of serving all who seek help, trusting that very few will abuse their generosity.

The consensus among food pantry operators is that the number of unworthy recipients is tiny and is a small price to pay for ensuring that food is available for all who need it. The volunteers who staff the pantries—a virtual army working at 60,000 pantries—are witness to the genuine need they encounter daily.

Remarkably, Ozaukee County has three food pantries within a few miles of one another—The Food Pantry Inc. in Port Washington, Ozaukee Food Alliance in Saukville and Family Sharing in Grafton. The fact that dozens of Ozaukee residents volunteer at these outlets to serve hundreds of clients in the county that in 2025 has the highest average household income in Wisconsin can be taken as a clear sign of the widespread need for help in basic sustenance in America.

The Ozaukee pantries are nonprofit organizations that depend for their existence on monetary contributions, donations of food from individuals and corporate entities and their relationship with food banks.

Food banks are nonprofits that collect and store surplus food from supermarkets, restaurants, retailers, food processors and other sources and sell it cheaply, or give it, to food pantries. 

Beyond helping to put food on tables, food banks counter America’s prodigious flow of food waste to landfills. Unsold food amounts to 133 billion pounds worth $160 billion per year, according to the USDA. More than 30% of the food in the food supply chain is lost. Food banks capture enough of it to provide millions of free meals.

Together, food pantries and food banks make an efficient, dependable system for helping society’s neediest. And in doing that, they provide a bracing uplift to the nation’s character at a time when human need can be dismissed as a political casualty.