New York — In one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, a line ran along the side of the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen and Storehouse.
Willie Hillier is homeless, unemployed, 63 years old. He lives in a shelter in New York with his two grandchildren and often goes hungry so they can eat the food he gets from the shelter. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance ProgramOr Snap.
On many days, Hillier’s only food is the hot meal he gets from the Holy Apostles in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. with SNAP is at riskHe worries that there will never be enough for him and his children, forcing him to sacrifice even more.
“I always tell them: ‘My grandfather is here for you,’” he said. “Whatever I have, I’ll give it to you.”
Two federal The justices ruled almost simultaneously on Friday That President Donald Trump’s administration should continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s largest food assistance program, using emergency funds during the government shutdown. But officials said it was too late to prevent beneficiaries from losing benefits on Saturday and that restoring them would likely take at least one week.
One in eight Americans uses SNAP, but stopping it would disproportionately hurt Black Americans like Heller. Blacks make up 12.6% of the population but are more than a quarter of SNAP recipients, the largest overrepresentation of any racial or ethnic group. Other racial groups receive SNAP at rates lower than their overall share of the population.
Historians and human rights advocates say this is an example of what is known as systemic racism. There may be no official racial policy, but America’s long history of racism — from slavery to unfair zoning rules — has left Black communities with a series of structural disadvantages, and Much less wealth accumulated over generations.
The most recent data show that non-Hispanic white people represent 58.1% of the population, but only 35.4% of SNAP recipients.
Hispanics and Asians are underrepresented in SNAP statistics. Native Americans receive SNAP at the same rate as their group in the general population.
Asian Americans living in poverty face constraints such as lack of English fluency and neighborhood development. In New York City, 253,000 of the 1.5 million Asian residents use SNAP, according to the nonprofit Asian American Federation. More than 91% of them are working. But, with limited English proficiency, many have limited job opportunities, says Catherine Chen, the company’s CEO. Families who had lived comfortably in cultural enclaves like Chinatown for a generation or two became unaffordable.
The majority of adult SNAP recipients who can work do so. Some still qualify for SNAP — typically $187 a month — even though they hold down one or more jobs, according to nonprofit advocates. They are often low-paying jobs without benefits such as paid sick days.
A a report The National Urban League found last year that the racial income gap has been virtually unchanged for more than 20 years, with Black Americans earning 64% of the income of white people, on average.
“There is so much discrimination in the workforce, so much discrimination in America today, that Black people who were enslaved and segregated for 350 years are still fighting for economic equality,” said Marc Morial, president of the civil rights group. “While we have a growing number of African Americans, middle-class Americans, we still have a disproportionate number of poor (Black) Americans.”
At the current pace, it will take one to three centuries for most black Americans to achieve parity with their white peers, depending on where they live, according to the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility.
this year The unemployment rate among blacks increased from 6.2% to 7.5%. It is the highest level since October 2021. Black homeownership fell to the lowest level in four years, according to an analysis by real estate brokerage Redfin. The Census Bureau found that median Black household income fell 3.3% last year to $56,020. This is about $36,000 less than what a white family earns.
The looming absence of grocery dollars will almost certainly make it difficult for families to afford rent, gas and other expenses. Even if SNAP benefits are restored before the end of November, nonprofit leaders say low-income residents could face financial setbacks next year.
For tribal nations, food and nutrition assistance programs are part of the U.S. government’s trust and treaty responsibilities—the government’s legal and moral obligations to fund the health and well-being of tribes. The United States promised to uphold these rights in exchange for the lands and resources it took from the indigenous people.
However, these rights remain chronically underfunded Uniquely vulnerable to a government shutdownAccording to a report released last week by the Brookings Institution. The study found that in 2024, more than two-thirds of trust and treaty responsibilities were funded by discretionary spending, meaning they are not guaranteed during the lockdown. She also noted that one of the largest sources of mandatory spending owed to tribes comes in the form of SNAP benefits.
Another USDA program Provides food to income-eligible Native American familiesThe food distribution program on Indian reservations is still operating. But Native Americans already enrolled in SNAP cannot participate in this program. FDPIR Chair Mary Greene Trottier said in October that her agency asked USDA Undersecretary Patrick Penn for a waiver, which the agency granted for November, according to a letter Greene Trottier received on Friday.
She expects to see a significant increase in demand for her program once SNAP benefits are discontinued.
“I’ve heard the pleas of people in the community and beyond who really care about not having enough food to eat and choosing between paying medical bills or utility bills that are mounting,” Green-Trottier said.
“I can’t say this loud enough, but this is using food as a weapon again,” she said, referring to the U.S. government’s historic policies of withholding or cutting off food supplies to starve tribal nations as the country expands.
Meanwhile, tribal nations across the country — including the Spirit Lake Nation, Cherokee Nation, Blackfeet Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Shawnee Tribe — have declared states of emergency before losing SNAP benefits.
The disproportionate need for food stamps among non-white families has contributed to the spread of misinformation and stereotypes. Beginning in the 1960s, the term “welfare queen” became popular, reinforcing assumptions that poor people of color were benefiting from government assistance rather than seeking work.
But two-thirds of SNAP beneficiaries, more than 40 million, are people you wouldn’t expect to work with. Thirty-nine percent of them are children, 20 percent are seniors, and 10 percent are children or non-elderly adults with disabilities, according to the Urban Institute.
Pastor Cleo Lewis, who usually runs a street ministry in Phoenix, organized a food drive for the first time to soften the blow as much as possible for the 30 families he counsels at a local shelter.
“We usually deal with areas that are spiritually connected,” Lewis said. “We now have to increase our presence and deal with the substantive issues and material issues that we know are important, but we have relied on other specialists to deal with this.”
___ This story has been corrected to indicate that the percentage of the population that is non-Hispanic white is 58.1%, not 75%, and to indicate that Asian SNAP recipients are underrepresented, not overrepresented. ___
Tang reported from Phoenix. Brewer reported from Norman, Oklahoma. Associated Press data journalist Kasturi Bananjadi in Philadelphia and reporter Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report.