This Veterans Day, while communities across America honor those who served in uniform, millions of Americans — including veterans — are battling with hunger. It’s a battle that should never exist: the fight against hunger in families who sacrificed for our freedom.
As food pantries report growing numbers of veterans seeking emergency assistance, and Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration continue to weaponize hunger, we need to do more than hold parades. We must truly honor our heroes by ensuring they have the resources they need to feed themselves and their families.
A Safety Net in Freefall
On November 1, something unthinkable happened: For the first time, 42 million beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) did not receive their monthly benefits. The Trump administration chose to let SNAP benefits lapse during the government shutdown, rather than releasing contingency funds.
As a result, millions of families in every state and congressional district have been living in limbo, unsure when or if they would receive the assistance they are owed. Local charities and food pantries are doing their best to keep up with increased demand for their services, but they can never address the full scope of hunger in this country — even without this manufactured crisis. Some state policymakers have been scrambling to mobilize funds to help those in need, but their resources are finite, and even they know this is clearly the job of the federal government.
Last week, at the behest of federal courts, the Trump administration announced it would tap roughly $4.65 billion from its SNAP contingency reserve — enough to cover only about half of regular benefits. Worse still, the agency said no funds would be available for new applicants throughout the entire month, leaving newly eligible families with nowhere to turn.
Even now, two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to fully fund November SNAP benefits, but the President has been fighting and appealing these court orders to avoid paying full benefits until the government shutdown ends. The administration is taking every opportunity to play political games at the expense of hungry families.
Through it all, MAZON has been leading the anti-hunger community in urging the Trump administration and Congress to use every tool they have to protect families from hunger and keep benefits flowing. The SNAP crisis — and the Trump administration’s unwillingness to follow the law to support hungry Americans — has been headline news across the country.
The truth is clear: it should not take judicial intervention to force the Trump administration to carry out a program that keeps 42 million low-income Americans fed. As Judge McConnell of the District of Rhode Island wrote last week, “This is a problem that could have and should have been avoided.” It is appalling, yet not altogether surprising, to see this level of recklessness and lawlessness from leaders in the Trump administration and from the President himself.
Service Shouldn’t Mean Struggle
Veterans face unique barriers to food security — in part due to the compounding and interrelated challenges of employment, housing, and health. There is not enough data about food insecurity among veterans, but we know there are higher hunger rates among female veterans, Native American and other veterans of color, and LGBTQ+ veterans.
We also know that while about 1.2 million veterans receive SNAP, this only tells part of the story because only a fraction of food insecure veterans who live in SNAP-eligible households are enrolled in the program. In fact, veterans who are eligible for SNAP are less likely to participate in the program than their civilian counterparts. This is often because they don’t know about SNAP, they don’t know that they might qualify for this benefit, or they are reluctant to apply due to persistent stigma and shame.
This significant SNAP participation gap among veterans is staggering and unacceptable. It is a painful reality we must confront: for far too long, our broken systems have been making SNAP increasingly difficult for veterans to reach, even as their needs grow.
In fact, the SNAP crisis we face today feels especially pointed and cruel since it follows deep cuts and harmful changes enacted this summer that made accessing food assistance harder for veterans and so many others. At the last minute, Republicans in Congress dropped language from their final budget reconciliation bill that gave special protection to veterans, unhoused people, and former foster youth. These three groups were previously exempted from SNAP’s harsh time limits — there was a bipartisan consensus that these three groups, at least, should not be punished with hunger simply because they were often unable to meet the arbitrary “work requirements” and draconian reporting mechanics.
During the rushed public debate about these and other staggering SNAP changes, House Agriculture Chairman Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA-15th) promised that “our veterans are exempt from the SNAP work requirement, which is the law … and we’re not changing it.” Just a few days later, he and nearly all Republicans in Congress supported the bill, celebrating its changes to SNAP as “combatting waste, fraud, and abuse” while knowing that it will decimate the program as we know it.
How are we honoring our veterans by making it harder for them to access food assistance from the country they served?
Honor Means More Than Thanks
Every Veterans Day, we say “thank you for your service.” We wave flags, attend ceremonies, post tributes. These gestures matter. Recognition and gratitude are important. But honor without action is hollow. Service without support is betrayal.
This Veterans Day, our gratitude must translate into concrete action.
Join MAZON as we implore the Trump administration to use all available options to immediately provide full funding for SNAP benefits and ensure that states have what they need to prevent any further disruptions or delays.
While the current SNAP crisis demands urgent attention, we must also reckon with what it reveals: a nutrition safety net vulnerable to political gridlock and budgetary dysfunction. We must demand more from our lawmakers.
When this government shutdown ends, advocates must keep hunger in the headlines. We all must continue talking about SNAP and pushing for systemic reforms that prevent future funding lapses and needless disruptions. Political gridlock must never again translate into empty plates. This means judicial clarity, robust contingency reserves, and streamlined processes that efficiently deliver food assistance to anyone in need — regardless of circumstance or zip code. It also means restoring protections to SNAP for veterans, former foster youth, and unhoused people. It means reversing harmful changes that were designed to shrink SNAP and make it harder for states to offer benefits. It means providing information about SNAP and other food assistance programs to service members when they transition to civilian life. It means robust food security screenings at VA clinics and educating veteran service providers about how to help veterans enroll in SNAP.
True honor means ensuring that those who serve our country never have to wonder where their next meal will come from. It means they can feed themselves and their families with dignity and choice, without needless stress and anxiety about benefit delays. It means keeping the promise we make when we ask someone to serve: that we will take care of you and yours, no matter what.