'It makes you angry:' LGBTQ+ food pantries prepare for end of SNAP benefits

As the federal government remains closed for business, LGBTQ+ community centers and nonprofits with food pantries are preparing to fill the hole that will be left when SNAP benefits end.

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest anti-hunger program in the U.S. It was set to run out of funds on November 1, with over 42 million people left wondering where their next meal would be coming from. On Friday, two federal judges ordered the government to release emergency funds to assist those affected. However, that will take some time and could face appeals.

As those affected by the lack of funds turn to food banks, those nonprofits will be left wondering how to provide for the sudden influx of people needing aid.

The "Pride Pantries" at the LGBT Life Center in Virginia already provide assistance to about 650 households a month, or roughly 1,700 people, which amounted to around 285,000 lbs of food distributed in 2024. CEO Stacie Walls suspects that this year it will "definitely be over that based on the trend we've had for the last few months."

"These are individuals and households that are already marginalized and already living close to the edge of not having access to food at all," Walls tells The Advocate. "It's not just young families with children. One of the things that may be assumed is that these are individuals who aren't working, who aren't trying to contribute. The reality is most of the people who use it are either elderly or are working and just don't have enough to make it through the month."

About 15 percent of LGBTQ+ adults — nearly 2.1 million people, including 250,000 transgender individuals and 1.3 million lesbian and bisexual women — received SNAP benefits in the past year, according to a recent report from the Williams Institute, compared to 11 percent of non-LGBTQ+ adults.

Related: How SNAP cuts will disproportionately impact some LGBTQ+ people

Almost 70 percent of LGBTQ+ adults who received SNAP benefits had household incomes under $35,000, 66 percent were living with a disability, and 49 percent had a child under 18 living in their household. Over 90 percent of LGBTQ+ adults who received SNAP were either currently working (42 percent), had worked in the past year (6 percent), were students (8 percent), homemakers (9 percent), retired (5 percent), or were unable to work (21 percent).

"We know individuals that we serve in the queer community already don't have stable housing, don't have stable employment, don't have stable family support that they can depend on," Walls says. "They need our services. And this federal shutdown is requiring the nonprofits and the community-based organizations in this country to carry this load on behalf of the government."

The Trump administration's drastic cuts to federal aid have impacted all nonprofits, and significantly reduced SNAP before the federal government shut down. The Budget Reconciliation Bill, Donald Trump's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill," forced an estimated seven million people to either lose their SNAP benefits or see their benefits greatly reduced.

For the Center, there's "not enough food that comes from the food banks in the USDA program," Walls says, as "those programs were being cut well before the shutdown started. They're already operating with less resources than they were a year ago."

Meanwhile, queer-run, self-service, COVunity Fridge provides food to roughly 11,000 people a year. Because the organization is "already operating in a working-class, working-poor neighborhood, we are bracing for a drastic increase in folks who need food," co-founder Missy Spears says. It will be unsustainable to provide this much additional assistance in the long term.

"When we start seeing more people who suddenly can’t access fresh food, the community steps in to fill the gaps, but that help comes at a cost," Spears says. "Every time people have to step up to provide extended mutual aid, it drains the energy and resources we’d planned to use to move our neighborhood forward, and quite honestly, it pulls resources from other community needs as well. Instead of getting ahead, we’re constantly in survival mode, spending our limited time and money keeping families afloat."

Related: USDA website blames SNAP benefits expiring on trans people, immigrants amid shutdown

There's still a way for SNAP benefits to continue even as the government remains shut down. The lawsuits mentioned above is one way. Meanwhile, Virginia has announced it will use state money to fund SNAP benefits for its residents on a weekly basis (as opposed to monthly), which other states could also pursue.

Until governments step up, nonprofits will be filling in the holes. For those in need, most LGBTQ+ community centers have food banks, and "most food banks have no eligibility requirements, including ours," Walls says. That means there's "no income requirement for people to come to the food," and for those run by queer organizations, there's "no proving you're part of the community." If people can't make it to a pantry, they can still try contacting them about possible deliveries.

For those wanting to get involved, Walls stresses that it "doesn't always mean a cash donation" — these centers rely on volunteers who make the deliveries, which can require some physical labor, but also on those who can manage data collection and administrative work. Any ability could be beneficial, and will be needed even once the federal government reopens.

And when the shutdown ends, nonprofits want their communities to remember who was really there for them in a time of crisis.

"If you're sitting up in Congress and you have food on your table, and you're not worrying about where your next meal comes from, I think that you're not representing your entire community if you're not recognizing that there are people in every single community that struggle with food insecurity," Walls says. "You cannot take care of your health, you cannot go to work every day, you can't do any of that if you're hungry."

"It makes you angry because this is something that could have been prevented," she adds.

For those impacted by food insecurity, visit Feeding America to find a pantry near you.

This article has been updated to include comment from COVunity.