Elected officials and nonprofit representatives gather for a photo on Oct. 31, 2025 as Montgomery County designates $500,000 toward food purchasing for area food pantries amid the government shutdown. (Rachel Ravina – MediaNews Group)
Montgomery County officials designated $500,000 in food assistance funds Friday as the federal government shutdown threatens benefits for thousands of people.
The stalemate in Washington, D.C. will reach its one-month mark on Saturday, the same day the clock winds down on funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture indicated in a post on the government website that “there will be no benefits issued Nov. 1.”
In a press conference Friday at the Lansdale-based nonprofit Manna on Main Street, county officials slammed legislators in the nation’s capitol amid the ongoing budgetary stalemate.
“We are here because of inaction, ineptitude, callousness, and cruelty,” county Commissioners Chairman Neil Makhija said, categorizing the situation as a “manufactured crisis.”
Makhija stressed the need to “show what leadership looks like at the local level.” Officials directed the six-figure sum to “Montco neighbors in need.” The funds came from the county’s assigned fund balance in the general fund, according to a Montgomery County spokesperson.
“The federal government has made its choice. They are … choosing not to step in and end hunger. So here we are. Montgomery County has made a choice to step up … we’re going to support an extra $500,000 to support those in need, and we’re calling on others to step up, because this affects us all,” said county Commissioners’ Vice Chairwoman Jamila Winder.
“We need to do what we can as a county to figure out if we can offset some of these shortfalls for a short period of time because it’s not something that we can do endlessly,” Commissioner Tom DiBello told MediaNews Group.
DiBello, who was not present at the Manna conference, said “the federal budget” has some “very complex issues going on.” He noted votes have been taken more than a dozen times on a continued resolution “to provide funding for SNAP and everything else.”
While “some people want to blame Republicans” and “some people want to blame Democrats,” DiBello said that “at the end of the day,” people are “suffering because of the politics that are being played in Washington.”
County officials were joined by state leaders and others in the social services sector as they applauded the sorely needed cash infusion.
“I know it could not have been easy. I have to do a budget, too,” said Manna on Main Street Executive Director Suzan Neiger Gould as she turned to Makhija and Winder.
Risk and response
Nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians are “at risk of losing SNAP benefits,” according to figures from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office, including around 63,000 people in Montgomery County. SNAP contributes around $12 million to Montgomery County households monthly, according to a Montgomery County spokesperson.
“The very system meant to protect people is being held hostage, and it’s not only our neighbors who rely on SNAP who will suffer. Our food pantries you all know are already stretched thin, serving neighbors who earn too much for SNAP, but too little to make ends meet,” Winder said.
“It is absolutely unacceptable for our elected leaders to use our seniors and our children and our neighbors as pawns or as expendable in their fight for power,” said HealthSpark Foundation CEO and Executive Director Emma Hertz. “I am angry, and we should all be angry, but for me and for our team at HealthSpark Foundation, when we get angry, we take action.”
Hertz said the Colmar-based organization is working to direct an additional $200,000 in “emergency grant funds to food security organizations across Montgomery County” over the next week as nonprofits deal with the fallout related to the shutdown.
On the state level, Shapiro was among representatives from two dozen states and Washington, D.C. to sue the Trump Administration to unlock emergency federal funds to cover the SNAP benefit lapse, according to the Associated Press. A “shutdown plan” from the federal agriculture department noted the use of funds to “keep SNAP running,” the Associated Press reported. However, a memo issued last week “said that it couldn’t legally use it.”
A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump Administration must use contingency funds to pay SNAP benefits, according to media reports.
Additionally, Shapiro on Friday declared a state of emergency, directing $5 million to Feeding Pennsylvania’s food pantry network, according to a statement from Shapiro’s office.
The federal issues are being compounded by the budget impasse within the Pennsylvania General Assembly as legislators in Harrisburg have failed to pass a state budget four months past the June 30 deadline.
The impasse has left more than $25 million in aid bound for food pantries in limbo, according to reporting from the Associated Press. Several state legislators launched a new initiative, the Pennsylvania Food Bank and Hunger Relief Grant Program, which will provide around $62 million in “interest earned from the rainy day fund” to food banks and Meals on Wheels, according to state Sen. Maria Collett, D-12th Dist.
Around 85,000 people reportedly experience food insecurity in Montgomery County, according to 2023 figures from Feeding America. Manna on Main Street is among 73 food pantries and meal assistance providers situated under the umbrella of the MontCo Anti-Hunger Network.
The Ambler-based nonprofit receives around $200,000 in federal funding each year from Montgomery County, as nonprofit leaders observed how cuts to emergency food assistance programs could dramatically impact food supplies.
“Nobody is immune from need. Every one of us is closer than we think to the edge. One job loss, one illness, one rent increase,” Winder said.Neiger Gould noted 1,670 households turned to the assistance at the Manna market, both in-person and online, during October. She said it is the “largest number of visits ever,” with the total surpassing periods during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They are the kids that sit next to your children in school. They are the people you worship with. They are the older couple living in a small house down the road,” Neiger Gould said, stressing “they are multiple people that you interact with each and every day, and you may not even know that they are food insecure.”
Officials encouraged the community to do their part and contribute donations to local food pantries, either monetary or physical food items.
“Please support your local pantries because they need it. They really do,” Neiger Gould said.
