Government shutdown gridlock means they're waiting for food in the cold Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY November 2, 2025 at 6:09 AM 0 AURORA, CO ‒ Doug Wheeler sat in his battered VW sedan chainsmoking King's cigarettes, fuming about his missing SNAP benefits and President Donald Trump. A trucker forced to retire 15 years ago following a multiple sclerosis diagnosis, Wheeler depends on disability and SNAP payments to make ends meet. And since the federal government shutdown has halted SNAP checks for the first time in history, Wheeler is worried about eating and paying his bills.
- - Government shutdown gridlock means they're waiting for food in the cold
Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY November 2, 2025 at 6:09 AM
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AURORA, CO ‒ Doug Wheeler sat in his battered VW sedan chainsmoking King's cigarettes, fuming about his missing SNAP benefits and President Donald Trump.
A trucker forced to retire 15 years ago following a multiple sclerosis diagnosis, Wheeler depends on disability and SNAP payments to make ends meet. And since the federal government shutdown has halted SNAP checks for the first time in history, Wheeler is worried about eating and paying his bills.
On a cold Saturday morning, Wheeler waited with more than 100 other people as volunteers distributed free food from the Food Bank of the Rockies in a suburban Denver church parking lot.
Recipients began lining up in their idling vehicles shortly after sunrise in the below-freezing temperatures, burning gas to stay warm as they waited.
1 / 14Free food as SNAP benefits haltedFood items at a Food Bank of the Rockies distribution site in Aurora, Colorado, including milk, pasta and frozen blueberries.
The SNAP funding jeopardy has sparked a wave of uncertainty for the 42 million Americans who depend on the benefits to buy food each month, and food banks are preparing for high demand just weeks before Thanksgiving.
Live updates: SNAP in limbo as government shutdown hits Day 32
Federal judges on Oct. 31 ordered the federal government to begin releasing emergency reserve funds. The rulings are likely to be appealed.
"I've gotta cut way back," Wheeler said. "They haven't told us anything. I thought it was maybe coming through after yesterday but they haven't said anything yet."
The Trump administration previously said it couldn't use emergency reserves to pay partial benefits during the second-longest government shutdown in history. In an Oct. 31 social media post, Trump said people upset about losing benefits should complain to Democratic members of Congress, but said it would "be my honor" to release emergency funds when ordered to do so.
Former trucker Doug Wheeler, 56, waits to collect food at a Food Bank of the Rockies distribution site in Aurora, Colorado, on Nov. 1, 2025, following the halt of SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans. Wheeler is among those whose benefits have been halted.
For food recipients like Wheeler, the dispute in Washington, D.C. feels simultaneously remote and all-too-personal. Wheeler said he's particularly mad that Trump suggested that it's mostly Democrats who receive SNAP benefits, as a justification for delaying funding. Wheeler said he voted for Trump in 2016 and considers himself a Republican.
"We are all sitting around wondering where we're going to get food and Trump's off in Japan," Wheeler said, referencing the president's recent Asia trip. "They don't seem like they're figuring anything out, legally or otherwise. It's just like 'whoops no more food benefits.'"
Workers with the Food Bank of the Rockies, which organizes monthly distributions at the site, said there were many new faces among the regulars. As people waited in their cars, volunteers filled boxes with pasta, milk, fresh fruit and frozen shrimp. They also tore open 50-pound sacks of potatoes, deciding to give each household 15 spuds to ensure as many people as possible got something to eat.
"There's a lot of uncertainty, and what we've really been hearing from neighbors is a mix of gratitude but then also a lot of worry at the same time," said food bank spokesperson Joanna Wise. "We are seeing more and more people reaching out for assistance. The rug has been pulled out from under their feet."
Among those seeking help was Tommiecinia Broadnax, 72, who waited to pick up cardboard boxes of food along with her neighbor. Broadnax said her SNAP account remained empty despite the judges' orders to release funding.
"We need food," she said simply.
Social-service experts warn that the SNAP benefits halt may create trickle-down effects for families struggling even harder to pay bills and buy food.
"What we are witnessing is a tear in our social safety net," United Way Worldwide CEO Angela Williams said in a statement to USA TODAY. "Uncertainty, stress, and disruptions exacerbate existing inequities and, for low-income families, even a short stoppage to SNAP can mean losing a home, missing work, or a health crisis that sets them back for months."
Before beginning the distribution, site manager Thomas Booth, an elder with Restoration Christian Fellowship, led assembled volunteers in prayer.
With his "Desert Storm Veteran" hat perched atop his head, Booth asked God to send wisdom to politicians and food for the hungry, then launched the team into a carefully choreographed dance of placing boxes into cars as they rolled past tables piled with food.
Thomas Booth, the site coordinator for Food Bank of the Rockies distribution site, and an elder with the Restoration Christian Fellowship, which hosts the distribution, helps hand out food to people on Nov. 1, 2025, following the halt of SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans.
Volunteer Robert Glade marshalled traffic with an orange flag, greeting each client with a big smile, a handshake or fist bump.
"Hello, hello my friends! It's a good day, lots of food!," he said as a car rolled up. "So glad to see you, so glad to see you."
Glade is a tower crane operator who normally works alone 200 feet off the ground, and he said volunteering with the food bank at his church is a way of giving back: "We get to see wonderful things happening. And I want people to feel good about coming here. Everyone has to eat."
Sitting in his car after stubbing out another cigarette, Wheeler, the disabled trucker, said he's worried about his neighbors. He knows how tough things are for everyone, and he just wants to see the federal government start working again.
"It's a pain in the neck to come sit out here in the cold, early in the morning," he said. "It's just like you get a letter saying 'you're on your own,' so you have to look around for places that are handing out food."
(This story was to add a video.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Colorado food bank responds as shutdown causes SNAP benefit chaos
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Published: November 01, 2025 at 09:54PM on Source: VOXI MAG
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