Arizona's SNAP recipients in limbo amid back-and-forth on food benefits
By Laura Gersony for The Arizona Republic published Wednesday, November 5, 2025. Article quotes Marcy Fleming, who serves on the board of Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, and member of Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church in Mesa, Arizona.
A government shutdown has put federal nutrition assistance program (SNAP) payments in question for November.
President Trump has given conflicting statements on whether his administration will fund SNAP benefits despite court orders.
The potential loss of SNAP benefits could affect 855,000 Arizona residents, with state and local aid unable to cover the shortfall.
Dee McDonald, a 64-year-old liberal activist, relies on SNAP, the federal nutrition assistance program, to feed herself and three grandkids at her home in east Mesa.
Her SNAP payments arrive on the seventh of every month. But this month, that usually reliable budget line is a question mark.
LSS-SW president and CEO Connie Phillips and staff join others at press conference in support of extending SNAP funding.
"I don't know if I'm going to receive anything," McDonald told The Arizona Republic.
SNAP has become a flashpoint in the ongoing government shutdown, as President Donald Trump oscillates on whether his administration will send the paychecks that support millions of families, even after a court ordered he must do so.
It's one of several punishing cuts that will hit Arizona as the federal government shutdown stretches into its sixth week.
Republicans have placed the blame on Democrats, who have refused to vote for an end to the shutdown until Republicans repeal cutbacks made this summer that would kick millions off Medicaid and end insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the calendar year.
Democrats meanwhile have used the SNAP disruptions as a chance to remind voters of the social safety net cuts included in Trump's budget plan, dubbed by its supporters as the "One Big, Beautiful Bill," which passed earlier this year.
"While this administration hosts a lavish dinner party during this shutdown, we are watching children, seniors, and working parents be starved of dignity," Alejandra Gomez, executive director of the left-wing activist group LUCHA, said at a Nov. 4 news conference in Mesa.
Two courts have ordered the Trump administration to provide the funding, but it remains unclear how soon people would begin receiving their food stamps and how much they would or wouldn't get.
In the last week of October 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it did not believe it had the authority to provide SNAP benefits in November because of the ongoing government shutdown.
The Trump administration said Nov. 3 that it planned to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans after two judges ruled it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November.
'We cannot replace SNAP'
Ending SNAP payments could leave 855,000 Grand Canyon State residents without help to buy groceries.
State and local governments have announced stopgap measures to offset the federal disruptions but they're unlikely to cover the funding shortfall.
Gov. Katie Hobbs announced she will send about $1.8 million toward food banks, about 1% of the amount Arizona distributes to families for food stamp benefits in a month. And it's unlikely there is the political appetite in the Republican-majority state Legislature to pull away from their party's president and draw a sizeable amount from the state's rainy day fund.
Marcy Fleming in the “God’s Work. Our Hands” shirt (at left).
Marcy Fleming, with Lutheran Social Services, said that her organization handed out 532 boxes of food per month, on average, during the last fiscal year. Since July 2025, that figure has increased to 880 boxes per month: a 50% uptick Fleming believes is attributable to the rising cost of living.
The number of people coming to her organization for help has "almost doubled" in the last week, she said.
"We cannot replace SNAP," said Kelley Blakslee with the Creighton Family Resource Center in Phoenix.
McDonald, who is involved with LUCHA and other local groups, said that she supports the Democrats' decision to hold out for a health care funding deal, even though the standoff means her food benefits are temporarily in limbo.
In the meantime she is making hard decisions. One of her grandkids asked about having green beans on Thanksgiving. She told him she's not sure if they can afford fresh green beans this year. But she's already been budgeting, saving up cans of cranberry sauce and other items ahead of the holiday season: They might be able to eat canned green beans instead.
"Without SNAP, we'd be homeless," she said.