{"id":21684,"date":"2025-10-26T09:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T09:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/21684\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T09:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T09:59:09","slug":"shutdown-threatens-snap-for-texas-families-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/21684\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutdown threatens SNAP for Texas families \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the government shutdown continues, the federal dollars that millions of Texans rely on to feed their families will come to a halt.<\/p>\n

More than 3.5 million Texans rely on the Supplemental Food Assistance and Nutrition Program, or SNAP, to purchase groceries. That number includes 1.7 million Texas children, according to the latest state data.<\/a><\/p>\n

“SNAP is the food benefit that helps me feed my child and myself,” said Shawnta Carter.<\/p>\n

NBC 5 met the single mother earlier this week, putting in volunteer hours to maintain those benefits.<\/p>\n

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission posted on their website<\/a> that if the shutdown continues past October 27th, SNAP benefits for November will not be issued.<\/p>\n

“‘What am I going to do?’ That’s what I thought,” Carter said. “And it’s not really fair to single mothers trying to feed our kids.”<\/p>\n

Texas dispersed more than $614 million\u00a0in SNAP benefits in August with the average payment being $379. Funds are transferred to a recipient’s Lone Star Card to buy groceries.<\/p>\n

The North Texas Food Bank <\/a>helps families sign up for SNAP benefits and supports 400 food banks across the region by giving away free food.<\/p>\n

They are preparing to serve more families if SNAP benefits are suspended and the shutdown stretches into another week.<\/p>\n

“I think what we’re finding out is that a lot of families are literally one paycheck away from being food insecure,” said Enrique Rodriguez with the North Texas Food Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no qualification process to receive free food from the North Food Bank, said Rodriguez. Volunteers will ask for your name, a zip code, and the number of people in your family.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s important for us to realize that politics aside, this is about people and we are here to do the ultimate that we’ve been asked to do and that’s to help our neighbor,” Rodriguez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Baby Booties Diaper Bank<\/a> in McKinney is preparing to serve more families at their November 8th\u00a0Diaper Day.<\/p>\n

“We expect the family that may not be on consistent funding – that may just need one or two months,” said co-founder Chris Hutton.<\/p>\n

Their volunteers served nearly 1500 family members at their October drive-thru. They’ve yet to turn away anyone in need.<\/p>\n

“We’re preparing. We’re going to pack the trailer, pack it full and when we leave they’re all going to be gone,” said Hutton.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their Diaper Days are typically held on the second Saturday of the month, and there is no pre-registration required.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hutton said the organization is always grateful for volunteers and monetary donations so they can buy diapers at wholesale costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the government shutdown continues, the federal dollars that millions of Texans rely on to feed their families…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,13066],"class_list":["post-21684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-u-s-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}