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EL PASO, Tx., November 10, 2025: With the federal shutdown now the longest in the nation\u2019s history, city officials fear only weeks of food for low-income El Pasoans is left. An official who agreed to speak to us for background purposes only because they are not authorized to speak publicly about food scarcity told us that city officials were told recently that at most El Paso has a month of food reserves before running out.<\/p>\n
Even before the loss of SNAP benefits<\/a> for low-income El Pasoans due to the shutdown, El Paso was facing food insecurity problems.<\/p>\n A special report<\/a> prepared by the Paso del Norte Institute for Health Living in 2017 found that \u201cmore than 160,000 El Paso County residents, including over 52,000 children, live in lower-income communities with limited supermarket access.\u201d The report also identified that over 10% of El Pasoans were \u201coften\u201d worried that money would run out before receiving their next paycheck, food subsidy or both. This compares to the 4% across the country who worried about running out of money for food. Almost 8% of El Pasoans \u201coften\u201d ran out of money for food, compared to 3% nationally. Around 30% of El Pasoans \u201csometimes\u201d worried about running out of food or ran out of food before they had money to feed their families.<\/p>\n An interesting observation made by the food insecurity report is that they believe participation in the SNAP program among El Pasoans \u201cis low among income-eligible people, leaving an estimated $91 million\u201d unused each year. In addition to feeding low-income populations, the federal food subsidies infuse cash into the city through the grocery stores where they are used. This is what the report refers to as \u201cunused\u201d funds that do not enter the city\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n The reason for the \u201clow participation,\u201d according to the report are the \u201clengthy application process and the complex eligibility guidelines.\u201d The report adds that additionally there is a \u201cstigma and cultural barriers,\u201d keeping an estimated participation of 76% among eligible people. The report adds that the national participation rate is 83% while in Texas it is 66%, putting El Pasoans above the state average but below the national average.<\/p>\n The study did not cite the source for the \u201clow participation\u201d figures, and we could not find any other independent sources confirming the study\u2019s figures. Nonetheless, our research<\/a> identified 143,415 El Pasoans who participate in SNAP food subsidies.<\/p>\n A Journal of Applied Business and Economic 2024 study by UTEP\u2019s by Thomas Fullerton and other UTEP professors estimated that 35% of El Paso\u2019s residents experienced some form of food insecurity. This would suggest that around 306,500 El Pasoans experience some type of food shortage.<\/p>\n These numbers reflect totals before the closure of SNAP food benefits from the federal shutdown and do not include Ft. Bliss families now experiencing food and other income problems. El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank has already been forced to allocate around 1,500 food boxes to help Ft. Bliss families weather their lack of paychecks during the shutdown.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fund_jurnlist_lgad_1.png\")
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