SNAP

Thousands of older adults across South Florida are at imminent risk of losing crucial food assistance as the ongoing federal government shutdown threatens to suspend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits starting November 1, warns the Alliance for Aging.

November SNAP benefits remain paused until the federal government can be funded. As next month approaches, there doesn’t appear to be a deal on the horizon.

In Miami-Dade County, more than 522,890 individuals are set to lose this benefit, with nearly one in every four households affected — twice the national average.

The measure — the Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025 (H.R. 5822) — would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture to maintain full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, operations throughout any lapse in government funding.

State Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, and state Rep. Fentrice Driskell D-Tampa, sent a letter signed by every Democrat in the Florida Legislature on Tuesday to the governor urging him to step in and boost the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously known as food stamps.

SNAP has about $6 billion in the contingency fund — short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover a full month of the program, putting November benefits in jeopardy.

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, is calling on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-majority Florida Legislature to convene a special session and pass legislation to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as a potential lapse in federal funding looms due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

Earlier this month, Florida lawmakers learned that the state had a 15% error rate in 2024, which will soon cost the state roughly $1 billion a year.

As an increasing number of Florida food-stamp recipients have to meet work requirements, the state faces a potentially significant tab from the federal government.

SNAP recipients should receive their benefits in October. The White House also pledged to keep WIC operational using tariff revenues.

Beginning Jan. 1, SNAP recipients in Florida will no longer be able to use the benefit on soda, energy drinks, candy or prepared desserts like packaged cakes and cookies.

As the U.S. House of Representatives debates President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” a coalition of faith-based groups in Florida are making a last-minute plea to the state’s Republican-dominated congressional delegation to vote against it because of the deep proposed federal funding cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.