{"id":18889,"date":"2025-10-27T20:09:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/18889\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T20:09:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:09:25","slug":"if-snap-benefits-freeze-thousands-in-mount-vernon-n-y-will-struggle-to-buy-food-mayor-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/18889\/","title":{"rendered":"If SNAP benefits freeze, thousands in Mount Vernon, N.Y., will struggle to buy food, mayor warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

A community just outside New York City is gearing up for a possible food crisis if SNAP benefits run out<\/a> amid the federal government shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mount Vernon’s mayor warned Monday that nearly 5,000 residents would stop receiving government food aid if Congress does not replenish the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program<\/a> by Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

Food banks preparing for a wave of need<\/p>\n

Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said the city is working with food banks to expand services in anticipation of a wave of new need as the government shutdown continues<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This situation will have a significant impact on families and their ability to be able to take care of themselves, feed their children,” Patterson-Howard said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of those New Yorkers, Maureen Humphreys, said she relies on SNAP benefits to make ends meet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“With whatever I get through my Social Security, because I don’t get that much, it helps a lot,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The benefits are credited monthly to EBT cards to use like cash at grocery stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s trickling down to the local level”<\/p>\n

Patterson-Howard said she’s frustrated, since the federal government has an emergency fund to pay partial SNAP benefits for November.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration, however, said the shutdown does not quality as a triggering emergency, such as an extreme weather event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s a big fight going on right now in Washington, but it’s trickling down to the local level,” the mayor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her warning came the same day Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an extra $30 million<\/a> in state funding for food assistance.<\/p>\n

“We have over 3 million New Yorkers who could go hungry during the month of Thanksgiving … because of the shutdown,” Hochul said.<\/p>\n

Standoff in Washington continues<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune blames the shutdown on Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Democrats own this. They own any lapse in funding for critical food aid programs just as they own every other negative effect of the shutdown,” the Republican leader said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said he blames the GOP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s no question who’s at fault here. When you control the White House and both chambers in Congress, it’s a little hard to blame the other guys,” Murphy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If SNAP is frozen, meanwhile, Humphreys said she’ll have to rely more on senior center meals and food pantries to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The longer it takes, for the shutdown, the more people it gets hurt,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A community just outside New York City is gearing up for a possible food crisis if SNAP benefits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6336,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-18889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-mount-vernon","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}