Stretching a food budget, when SNAP's uncertain

Post Reports

The Washington Post

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🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An estimated 42 million Americans use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – also known as food stamps – to feed themselves and their families. The program ran out of funding over the weekend amid the government shutdown.

While the Trump administration agreed to release enough funds to pay for half of November's SNAP benefits, many SNAP users are worried about what the rest of the month – and beyond – might look like.

Host Colby Itkowitz speaks to technology reporter Heather Kelly about the current state of SNAP and how people are looking to online content creators for practical advice about how to stretch their food budgets.

Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks also to Mariana Alfaro, Jen Liberto and Yun-Hee Kim.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight...
0:04.0	And so I pointed the gun at him and said this isn't a joke.
0:08.4	A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old.
0:11.8	And a centenarian rediscovers a love lost 80 years ago.
0:16.3	How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again?
0:23.8	Listen to heavyweight wherever you get your podcasts.
0:32.0	Oh, I know. They love chips.
0:35.8	Early Monday, post-reporter Molly Hennessy Fisk met 59-year-old Paula Jones.
0:41.7	Paula was with her two-year-old granddaughter at a family dollar in Houston, Texas.
0:46.1	And so what were you shopping for today?
0:49.3	What do you call this?
0:50.6	Coffee, tide pots, and chips. And with Snap, are you usually covered up? Snap a cover
1:00.7	like chips and also a cold coffee. Paula told Molly that she makes $12 per hour in her job as a
1:08.4	customer service representative. She relies on SNAP benefits to buy her groceries.
1:13.4	That's the federal program for food assistance, formerly known as food stamps.
1:18.1	And these SNAP funds usually allow Paula to stock up for the month.
1:22.5	So what would you normally get at the beginning of the month?
1:26.4	Bread, eggs, milk, chicken, fish, vegetables, all the things that we like to eat.
1:33.9	Like staples, like the basics.
1:36.5	Basics.
1:37.4	Because you're getting like the foundation of your diet.
1:41.6	But those funds didn't come in for Paula over the weekend, like they normally do.
	...

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