PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) -- Standing in the rear of St. Benedict Church in Philadelphia, part of St. Athanasius Parish, Father Joseph Okonski, the pastor, surveyed a few remaining cans of food on tables temporarily set up behind the last pews.
"This past Friday, we got nothing. This coming Friday, we'll get nothing," he told OSV News Oct. 29, explaining that one of his parish food pantry's key supply organizations "doesn't have anything to distribute."
A number of factors have strained stocks at the well-organized parish pantry, which is operated by "about 30 volunteers" who serve clients every Monday and Friday, said Father Okonski.
Recently, regular deliveries from the main partnering food bank have shrunk due to cutbacks, tariffs and the federal government shutdown, the priest said.
Yet as supplies have declined, the need for hunger relief has risen, he said, noting that he and his team had "112 new households sign up in September" alone.
That same month, the pantry at St. Benedict aided an average of 150 households per operation day, including hundreds of children and seniors, according to a spreadsheet Father Okonski provided to OSV News.
If no more partner deliveries to the pantry are made, "we could go another month, given our supplies," he said.
And now, with funding for SNAP -- the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a major part of the nation's social safety net -- scheduled to lapse Nov. 1 due to the federal government shutdown, that need could stretch many hunger relief ministries, and those they serve, to the limit.
"People are very aware ... that as of Nov. 1, they're not going to have the ability to purchase food on their (SNAP) account," said Lizanne F. Hagedorn, executive director of Nutritional Development Services, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia's hunger relief agency.
With 1 in 8 Americans relying on SNAP, Catholic Charities USA announced a national fundraising effort to provide an emergency supply of food to Catholic Charities agencies around the country. CCUSA announced Oct. 30 all funds raised through this effort will be used to buy and ship food directly to its partner agencies around the country that operate food pantries, soup kitchens, food delivery programs and other efforts to serve those facing hunger or food insecurity.
"For low-income families and individuals who rely on SNAP and WIC to put food on their tables, this could be a catastrophic moment," Kerry Alys Robinson, CCUSA president and CEO, said in a statement, adding the network "stands ready to come to the aid of our vulnerable brothers and sisters during this time of dire need."
The U.S. federal government entered the current shutdown on Oct. 1, after lawmakers failed to pass funding legislation.
While some types of essential government services, including Social Security payments to older adults, are exempt from suspension during a shutdown, many other functions are not.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are subject to furloughs, meaning they must stop working and will not be paid until the federal government reopens.
The USDA said it is unable to draw from its contingency fund -- about $6 billion -- to meet the more than $8 billion needed for SNAP funding in November, a move Democratic lawmakers have urged amid a stalemate with their Republican counterparts over health care funding in the stalled budget.
A lapse in SNAP benefits would mark the first time in modern history there was such a disruption to the program, which is fully funded by the federal government, with the U.S Department of Agriculture administering the program through the states, and both sides splitting the administrative costs.
Qualified SNAP recipients -- low-income families, seniors and persons with disabilities living on fixed incomes -- receive monthly allowances through electronic benefit transfer accounts, with SNAP EBT cards used like debit or credit cards to purchase essential foods and seeds to grow food. Sales tax, takeaway and pet foods, nonfood items, alcohol, tobacco, vitamins and medicine are excluded.
SNAP -- which originated as a food stamp project launched in 1939, and which was expanded through various legislative acts across multiple presidential administrations -- served on average 41.7 million people per month, or 12.5% of the nation's residents, in fiscal year 2024, according to the USDA.
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that in fiscal year 2023, 79% of SNAP recipient households included either a child, an elderly individual, or a non-elderly individual with a disability.
A substantial number of Catholic households in the U.S. are also vulnerable. Updated Pew Research data released in 2025 found 36% of Catholic households make under $50,000, including 18% making under $30,000.
The federal poverty line for a family of four in the U.S. is $32,150 in 2025.
But even getting the data on SNAP may become more difficult: In September, the Trump Administration canceled the USDA's annual Household Food Security Report, denouncing it as redundant with other measures and as "subjective, liberal fodder" -- a move that raised questions from some policy analysts about how data will be collected about the program.
But Hagedorn highlighted the need to advocate for knowing the answer to the larger question: "Why are people food insecure?"
John Berry, national president of The Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA, a Catholic lay organization that offers an array of supports for vulnerable populations, told OSV News the government shutdown "is increasingly devastating with every passing day, leaving most federal workers without pay and causing uncertainty and delays in federal programs that serve the poor."
"Our most economically vulnerable brothers and sisters should not be forced to go without basic needs as a result of a partisan impasse, and it is time for both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to come together to ensure that the most marginalized among us will not abruptly lose critical benefits," Berry said.
He said his organization has urged the USDA to "immediately use every available mechanism, including the utilization of contingency reserves" in order for the 42 million people who use SNAP "to be able to buy food next month."
"It would be simply intolerable for people to unnecessarily go hungry as the shutdown heads into its second month," he said.
Sister Mary Haddad, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, said in an Oct. 27 statement that "missed paychecks and growing financial strain are forcing many to make tough choices about food, housing and health care."
She stressed that "Catholic social teaching calls us to uphold human dignity and care for the common good."
"Congress must act now, in a spirit of solidarity, to reach a bipartisan agreement that protects the vulnerable, strengthens the social safety net, and advances critical health priorities -- such as maintaining access to telehealth and extending vital health care tax credits," she said.
Hagedorn told OSV News that the SNAP suspension -- along with shutdown threats to other federal food aid such as the school meals programs and WIC, the USDA's supplemental program for women, infants and children -- stand to endanger the health of some of the nation's vulnerable.
"In Philadelphia, nearly one in four is food insecure," she told OSV News. "Childhood hunger rates in Philadelphia in 2024 were 30.4%."
Hagedorn pointed to the "combination of SNAP, WIC and school meals" affected by the shutdown, which will have a "significant" impact on "the health of our youth."
"What do people do when they have less income to feed themselves and their families?" she asked, adding, "Often they turn to cheaper, less nutritious foods."
That alternative stands in direct contrast to SNAP's purpose of, according to the USDA website, "putting healthy food within reach for those in need."
SNAP "lowers healthcare costs by $1,400 per participant," said Hagedorn, who also noted that both SNAP and WIC "generate substantial economic activity in many communities," since both programs stimulate local food spending.
One 2019 USDA data analysis described SNAP as "an automatic stabilizer for the economy," finding that a hypothetical $1 billion increase in SNAP spending amid an economic downturn would increase the nation's gross domestic product, or GDP, by $1.54 billion. USDA found it would boost agricultural industry income by $32 million and support 13,560 jobs, some 500 of them in the agricultural sector.
Regardless of the Nov. 1 deadline, Catholic food pantry workers are continuing their mission, and waiting to see if their client intakes rise.
Michelle Grassa, director of the Matthew 25:35 Food Pantry at Divine Mercy Parish in Manistee, Michigan, told OSV News her once-a-month ministry, which takes place on the second Friday of each month, won't know the impact of the SNAP suspension until Nov. 14.
"In recent months, we've averaged about 120 families a month," said Grassa, whose outreach serves rural communities in northern Michigan.
Those figures "hit a peak in June of this year" of about 140, and then started to decline to "below 130 last month," she said.
Looking ahead to Nov. 14, Grasssa said, "It's going to be hard to judge."
"I think if I see more than 130, or a 30% increase," she said, "then we've got some issues."
