Muriel E. Bowser
Mayor
Washington, DC

Matthew Frumin
Ward 3 Councilmember
Chairperson, Committee on Human Services
DC City Council

Wendell Felder
Ward 7 Councilmember
Member, Committee on Human Services
DC City Council

Christina Henderson
At-Large Councilmember
Member, Committee on Human Services
DC City Council

Zachary Parker
Ward 5 Councilmember
Member, Committee on Human Services
DC City Council

Robert C. White Jr.
At-Large Councilmember
Member, Committee on Human Services
DC City Council

Dear Mayor Bowser, Chairperson Frumin, and Committee Members,

I write to you today on behalf of the approximately 29,100 Bread for the City clients who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the payments from which are set to be suspended on Saturday, November 1, due to the prolonged federal government shutdown. These clients represent 97% of our overall population at Bread for the City and are among the 140,000 DC residents who receive SNAP benefits.

These benefits are vital to our community members. The District’s high cost of living and the economic challenges wrought in 2025 make it increasingly difficult for residents with low incomes to afford basic necessities, such as food and household essentials. According to the Capital Area Food Bank’s 2025 Hunger Report, 40% of District households are experiencing food insecurity, up from 35% in 2023. Food access is a racial justice issue – more than 1 in 3 Black District residents live in a household participating in SNAP as compared to 1 in 65 white residents. Failure to fund SNAP will disproportionately impact the city’s Black residents, with damaging consequences for Black children’s education and health outcomes.

The loss of SNAP funding will weaken DC’s already fragile economic foundation, as SNAP dollars will no longer circulate through local grocery stores, businesses, and farmers markets. The U.S. Department of Agriculture itself estimates that in a weak economy, SNAP generates $1.50 in economic activity for every dollar in SNAP benefits.

Children and seniors in particular greatly benefit from SNAP. An estimated 54% of DC households receiving SNAP have dependent children. Nearly 37% of DC SNAP recipient households include one or more people over 60 years old. DC has the highest rates of food insecurity among seniors—rates that will only rise when SNAP payments are suspended this weekend.

The Trump Administration is defying the rule of law by preventing the use of contingency reserves for SNAP during the shutdown. Not only is this not supported through precedent, including interpretations from previous administrations, it also contradicts the language in the administration’s own shutdown plan. I commend the DC Attorney General and his office for joining a coalition of states to sue the federal government in an effort to protect SNAP benefits. But we need to go further and ensure that as soon as payments are set to cease, families in need receive support.

As locally elected officials charged with safeguarding the well-being of all DC residents, including the 140,000 DC residents on SNAP—each of whom depends on you to protect their rights, including the human right of food access—I urge you to take action to ensure District residents do not go hungry.

Bread for the City is not unique in this fight for food security. We share this concern with food pantries, medical centers, and direct-service organizations where the majority of clients depend on SNAP each month to ensure there will be dinner on the table. They want to feed their families. They want their kids to go to school without being hungry. They want to remain full participants in the vibrant communities we’ve built together in DC.

It’s true that if the Trump administration used the tools that are available through the USDA to provide these benefit payments during the shutdown, we would not have to come to you. DC, along with other states and territories, would not need to scramble to make alternative plans. Food pantries, like Bread for the City, wouldn’t need to take heroic measures to meet the impending need. But the administration has chosen not to provide the relief that is within their power. And food pantries will not be able to meet the full need of SNAP recipients. 

For every meal we provide at Bread for the City, SNAP enables our clients to source five meals. The government shutdown has already stretched our resources as we have welcomed hundreds of new clients into our food pantries over the last four weeks, and counting. To make matters worse, rising food costs and the targeted dismantling of the federal workforce in our region have resulted in a 50% higher client volume even before the shutdown started.

If the Trump administration refuses to release existing contingency reserves, as they are legally required to do, to fund SNAP payments this month, I am calling on you to do everything within your power to ensure DC’s 140,000 SNAP recipients do not go hungry. We all have a role to play. While SNAP is a federal program, responsibility for DC residents is no small matter for local community leaders or nonprofit organizations. The well-being of our residents, including if we let them go hungry, should not be a small matter for our local representatives either. 

Why do we have emergency funds if we will not utilize them during an actual emergency? And I can attest: this is an emergency. I invite you to visit one of our two community centers and lend a helping hand. You’ll see the demand first hand and be in community with the clients who are directly affected.

The time to act is now. By failing to release emergency funds, DC will further validate harmful narratives that the 16 million children, 8 million seniors, and 4 million people with disabilities who depend on SNAP nationwide can simply wait for the government to re-open. Even worse, and simply put, DC residents will go hungry.

I am asking you to prevent hunger in our city at levels we have not experienced in more than a generation. Call a state of emergency. Release emergency funds today. Ensure that no DC resident will starve while the government is shut down.

Yours in service,

George A. Jones

CEO, Bread for the City