Why Mutual Aid Succeeds When Federal Funding Dries Up

For 43 days in 2025, 42 million lower-income families, including children and elderly, wondered where their next meals would come from. The nation’s largest anti-hunger program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), was cancelled during the fall’s government shutdown, the first time these benefits have ever been paused since it was implemented 1964.

But new SNAP guidelines expand the requirements of who needs to work to prove their eligibility, like veterans, the homeless, and adults ages 54 to 65, who were all previously exempt. Mandatory 20 hours weekly work requirements will also disproportionately impact people who work in fields that have been hit hard by unemployment, as well as caregivers, and the disabled.

Social scientists in the food security space say the stricter requirements will cause greater food insecurity, take money out of neighborhoods, and force state governments to figure out how to bear the costs while keeping their own budgets trimmed.

Keith McHenry has been working on food equity since 1980 and the challenges he faced back then are startlingly similar to those today. He co-founded Food Not Bombs, a volunteer-run mutual aid organization with around 1000 chapters across 60 countries; as a volunteer-run organization, that number could be considerably higher. Each chapter provides free food for communities, no questions asked, partnering with food banks, farms and local grocers.

He believes the issue is at critical mass because Americans who weren’t previously impacted can no longer look away from the challenges in our food systems. “We’re at such a catastrophe that almost everyone has friends or family facing food insecurity,” McHenry says.

Why Community is Our Best Safety Net

But there’s plenty of food for everyone. This country boasts ​​45,575 supermarkets and a robust restaurant industry hitting $1.5 trillion in sales in 2025, but access to food has only gotten more difficult. Despite earning $260 billion revenue from its grocery business alone, Walmart is one of the top employers of SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries in the country; some people who work at Walmart can’t afford to buy groceries from their employer. In 2023, 18 million US households suffered from food insecurity, up from 17 million in 2022. In September, the government decided to stop the annual food insecurity survey altogether.

According to Feeding America, 92 billion pounds of food goes to waste each year: 38% is unsold or uneaten, and over 51% comes directly from the food service industry. Twelve percent of the American population receives help from SNAP to buy produce, meat and other uncooked grocery items with their benefits, but it’s not enough.

To help SNAP recipients make ends meet, charities and community pantries try to fill the gap. Deliveries of pantry staples, and even hot meals are available for lower income families through 501c3 organizations like Meals on Wheels. But these organizations are fighting for government grants that aren’t guaranteed. When Trump’s Agriculture Department cut $500 million dollar to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (aka TEFAP) last year, food banks across the country received fewer deliveries of US-produced vegetables, meat, and dairy.

Even on a good day, these avenues don’t provide everything people need, like hot meals, vitamins, and meal supplements. Some states restrict items seen as luxuries, like candy and soda. They are also confusing programs to maneuver, with hours of paperwork to file to prove you deserve access to food.

“Food is a right, not a privilege,” McHenry says, noting that more people have been asking him what they can do to help every day, and not just during a SNAP emergency. Mutual aid groups, like Food Not Bombs, are taking it upon themselves to make sure there is food in their communities every day, and everyone can join in.

Mutual Aid In Practice

“How do you know if someone deserves food?” asks Kathryn Nolan of South Philadelphia Community Fridge. “There’s nothing you should do to earn it. There’s no morality test. If you’re a human being, you deserve it all the time.” Nolan is often found driving early mornings to areas of food surplus, and delivering it to one of the org’s fridges and pantries, stocked with groceries for anyone in need. “The truth is, more than half of Americans are one emergency away from homelessness.”