On Friday October 17, the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services sent an email to all LA County–area SNAP beneficiaries stating that November benefits may not be available due to the federal government shutdown. The shutdown — which held federal lawmakers in gridlock until recently — had threatened the existence of programs to protect against hunger and food insecurity as lawmakers struggled to reach agreement on a spending bill. SNAP, the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides assistance to over 1.5 million individuals in LA County through the CalFresh program. Over 40 million people rely on SNAP nationwide.
As November arrived and anxieties swirled around the future of SNAP, the Trump administration stated that it would be restarting benefits but only paying out half of what program enrollees normally receive. The funding was slated to come from the Agriculture Department’s contingency pool and would have supplied $4.65 billion for November. The total number that paid out monthly prior to the shutdown was $8 billion.
Upon visiting the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website during the shutdown, one could see a message reading “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp (SNAP) program. … Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutritional assistance.”
On November 12, President Trump signed legislation that ended the tumultuous and damaging 43 day shutdown. The new bill provides full funding for SNAP through September 2026. According to NPR, Republican lawmakers had gambled that their Democratic colleagues would concede on their position of holding out for greater healthcare provisions if enough cruelty was dished out to vulnerable populations. Their assumption proved to be well-founded.
While benefits will be available to SNAP enrollees in December, there is little cause for celebration in LA County, as food insecurity maintains its grip on many residents. In the weeks prior to the shutdown’s resolution, community organizations scrambled to fill the gaps they anticipated would appear in the event of SNAP’s dissolution. Meanwhile, the response from local government institutions was puzzling.
When asked to comment on the impending food scarcity crisis, LA County officials did not expand on the information they had previously released. James Bolden, a senior public information specialist with LA County, provided Knock LA with a picture of the first statement sent by the county Department of Public Social Services in October. Along with warning about the change in benefits, the statement suggests recipients seek out their local food banks if they require immediate assistance.
“We don’t consider this response to be adequate,” Ndindi Kitonga, a community organizer, scholar, and educator, told Knock LA. “It is easy for our blue state electeds to criticize the federal government while upholding similar cruel policies.”
In the absence of leadership, community organizations and mutual aid groups led the way in ensuring that more food resources were made available and that greater outreach efforts occurred to connect people to grassroots services.
Urban Partners, a Koreatown-based food distribution project, does a weekly food giveaway every Saturday morning. A diaper bank, the LA Baby Cooperative, hosts a simultaneous distribution out of the same facility. Both groups see anywhere from 300 to 450 people per week lining up at their doors to receive food and supplies. According to Maureen Allen, the chair of the Urban Partners board of directors, these numbers have remained consistent for years and are indicative of social services programs falling short.
“Poverty has been an issue in our community for decades,” Allen told Knock LA. “The people who have been coming each week, they need resources beyond SNAP.”
While the current presidential administration has caused considerable turmoil and upheaval, Allen remarked that food insecurity in Koreatown and central LA has been a considerable problem since the inception of Urban Partners over 30 years ago. Regardless of who is in the White House at any given time, poverty and an inadequate availability and distribution of resources have been constant.
“It’s a privilege to be able to have political investment,” said Allen. “When you’re struggling to feed your family every week, that’s your main concern.”
Out of the nearly 10 million people that live in LA County, 13.9% — 1.3 million individuals — live below the poverty line. Three out of every 10 households struggle with food insecurity. The consumer price index, which is generally used to determine the cost of living by assessing the prices of essential goods and services, rose by 3.3% from August 2024 to August 2025. Within the month of August itself, the cost of food rose 1.8%.
While many residents deservedly looked to city and county leaders to lead the way through this narrowly avoided food crisis, organizers and activists have come to understand that state actors cannot meet this moment, due to the very structure and execution of governance. In an interview with Knock LA, Ndindi Kitonga explained her position and analysis of why government institutions could not and would not meet the moment and affect change in the event of SNAP cuts.
“The abolitionist position and approach to the question of the state’s role might be best understood through what scholars like Ruth Wilson Gilmore call the anti-state state,” said Kitonga, referencing politicians who gain power by denouncing state power. Such has been a popular tactic for far-right conservatives and those subscribing to Trumpism, but is also present in political leaders across the ideological spectrum. “Once they have achieved an elected or appointed position in government, they have to make what they do seem transparently legitimate, and if budgets are any indication, they spend a lot of money even as they claim they’re ‘shrinking government.”
The city of LA provides an excellent example of this. Most recently, the city announced dramatic cuts to homeless services for 2026. While the number of unhoused folks sits well over 43,000 in LA proper, the proposed changes include but are not limited to closing up to 30 existing Pathway Home program sites, eliminating half of the county’s street outreach staff, and removing funding for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority housing navigation program. Housing programs and initiatives currently occupy 2.1% of the city budget for 2026.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department commands 23.6% of the city’s budget, at over 3 billion dollars.
Kitonga further explained that LA city governance utilizes entities within what scholars call the “shadow state” to provide services, such as healthcare services and casework, that the state itself cannot. Such entities include nonprofits, think tanks, and foundations that work directly in the social services sector. These organizations work lock and step with city officals and reinforce LA city government’s anti-state state functionality.
“The county and city solutions are to extend some of what they do ever so slightly,” Kitonga said in reference to how LA local government responded to potential SNAP cuts. “They’re never capable of making profound shifts because of all of their entanglements and also their ideological orientation — i.e. that some people are just less worthy.”
Kitonga explained that the solution to enormous issues like food insecurity and manufactured hunger crises lies instead in the work of grassroots and mutual aid groups. These organizations — that draw monetary and material support from fellow community members and groups rather than government contracts — work in what Ruth Wilson Gilmore dubbed “the shadow of the shadow state.” To quote an article by Gilmore in Barnard College’s Scholar and Feminist Online, “the real focus of [mutual aid groups’] energies is ordinary people whom they wish fervently to organize against their own abandonment.”
When news of the shutdown’s conclusion and SNAP’s continued existence broke, many LA residents breathed a sigh of shaky relief. However, it was excruciatingly clear that the city’s political leaders were neither in a position to nor had the political will to meet the moment. In a near miss, LA County dodged a bullet that would have pushed an already struggling population into further scarcity. In the future, it behooves residents to not only acknowledge the shortcomings of our local political system in times of crisis, but to also support and pour our energy into those mutual aid and community care groups on the frontlines that are the last line of defense for so many Angelenos.
To support Urban Partners, visit their website to make a tax-deductible donation.
Bio: Rosalind Jones (she/they) is a queer, Los Angeles–based writer and community organizer. She is a contributor to the online publication Knock LA, a founding member of the social justice organization Community Solidarity Project, and authors a Substack titled Another World is Inevitable. Rosalind holds a BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College and a certification in Creative Writing from the UCLA Extension.
