New York cathedral, diocese call on community to help feed people as SNAP benefits are reduced
Food distributions like this one in New York City, as well as the food ministries of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, are finding ways to help people impacted by the loss of SNAP benefits starting Nov. 1. Partial SNAP payments are due to resume, but the date for that is uncertain. Photo: Steve Sanchez/Sipa USA via AP Images
[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Winnie Varghese, dean of New York’s Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, has been preaching for the past week about the need for the community to step up to help people who face the loss of food benefits. Due to the federal government shutdown, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits ran out on Nov. 1, threatening to leave already food-insecure people without publicly supported food aid.
“We tried to think of a way to recreate something close to [SNAP],” Varghese told Episcopal News Service. She and other cathedral leaders decided to ask people to donate money that the cathedral will use to purchase $100 grocery store gift cards for people in the church’s Cathedral Community Cares programs.
Varghese said this way of providing food was picked because it does two things – it makes sure that people have enough to eat and that local grocery stores, corner shops and bodegas don’t suffer a loss of income. “People can, with dignity, shop in their grocery store, buy what they need, and it helps the grocery stores,” she said.
By Oct. 31, the cathedral had raised about $25,000 toward this project, she said, or enough for 250 cards. The same day, two federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must use emergency funds to extend food assistance to some 42 million Americans in need. The federal government agreed on Nov. 3 to begin partial SNAP payments this week, although many people may lose as much as half of their usual food assistance. WIC, or the program for low-income women and children, would receive more temporary funding.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN on Nov. 2 that SNAP funding “could be” reinstated by Nov. 5, but that “there’s a process that has to be followed. We’ve got to figure out what the process is.” Other reporting indicates it could take weeks or months to deploy emergency funds.
The Episcopal cathedral already offers a hot meal on Sundays in addition to its food pantry, but even these efforts, and all the other food programs across the country, can’t begin to replace the federal benefits that are being lost, Varghese said.
“For every one person that our program or any charitable program feeds, nine people are using SNAP,” she said.
On Nov. 3, the Diocese of New York also called for donations toward $100 gift cards and emergency food assistance or to support other local programs helping people in need.
New York Bishop Matthew Heyd told ENS that food ministries of churches around the diocese reported a growing number of people coming for assistance this past weekend. “People trust when they come into a church, the church can help,” he said, so he wants to be certain funding is available for congregations to buy food or grocery cards.
He also is encouraging people to tell their members of Congress that food shouldn’t be used as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations, noting that this is the first time food aid has been disrupted during a government shutdown.
SNAP funding was put in jeopardy after Congress was unable to pass a budget for fiscal year 2026 by the Oct. 1 deadline, resulting in a shutdown of most government agencies.
The Trump administration’s decision to partially fund SNAP was in response to two Oct. 31 rulings by two judges – one in Rhode Island and one in Massachusetts – requiring the government to restart SNAP payments, either in full or in part.
One of the plaintiffs in the Rhode Island case was the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, which addressed the impact on local churches by even the threat of a cut to SNAP benefits. One of those was St. Peter and St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Providence, which usually assists 170 families weekly. The church saw that number jump to 300 families last week, totaling about 500 people, the Rev. Mary Alice Sullivan, its rector, told ENS.
Currently about 42 million Americans – or 1 in 8 families – receive benefits through SNAP, which costs about $8 billion per month.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, the average SNAP household receives a monthly benefit of $332. That is $177 per person based on the average SNAP household size of 1.9 people – or about $6 per person per day.
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.
