Click to expand Image Volunteers help load vehicles during a food distribution at the San Antonio Food Bank for SNAP recipients and other households affected by the US federal shutdown, November 6, 2025. © 2025 Eric Gay/AP Photo The US government suspended funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the first time on November 1, amid what became the longest-ever US government shutdown. While Congress has voted to reopen the government and restore SNAP funding, those who rely on the program have faced fear and uncertainty.Continued failures by the US government to adequately fund food assistance forced families into difficult decisions to make ends meet and posed serious threats to the human rights of tens of millions of people in the Unites States.The harms caused by these cuts were disproportionately borne by children, Black families, and adults with disabilities. In fiscal year 2023, 39 percent of SNAP recipients were children under 18. Families of color—including Black, Indigenous, and Latino households—are twice as likely to participate in SNAP as white households. Adults with disabilities are similarly overrepresented. Participation in SNAP reduces both racial and geographic disparities in food insecurity.Jataya Greathouse is a single mother of four young children who is currently unable to work while battling breast cancer. Greathouse, who is Black, told Human Rights Watch she relies on SNAP to help feed her family and that she has resorted to “stretching” meals with the groceries she obtains. “Some people cannot work ... so by cutting [benefits], it hurts us.”Yet even at their previous levels, SNAP benefits were often insufficient to allow families to access enough food. In 2021, when funding was at an all-time high, over a quarter of beneficiaries were still skipping meals and eligibility criteria left millions of struggling people without benefits. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act further reduced federal funding for SNAP and other social protection programs, partly to help pay for tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy.Absent adequate social protection programs, communities often rely on each other for support; Greathouse’s aunt connected her to her local food bank. “I’m relying on SNAP to help feed my family,” she said. “If I don’t get it, it puts a hard rock on my back because now I’m not only going through something with my health, but I also have to figure out how to feed my kids.”As the shutdown ends, the US government should immediately restore SNAP funding in full and as quickly as possible. It should refrain from further cutting funds and imposing unnecessarily burdensome eligibility requirements that make it more difficult for families to put food on the table.