Workers with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ commodities program are loading food into Mary Lefthand’s truck.
Lefthand was on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. She liked the program because she could shop for her own food. But Lefthand switched when the Trump administration initially said it wouldn’t send any SNAP payments in November.
“Because, I have three growing grandkids that eat a lot,” she says.
Courts ordered partial, then full SNAP payments, but Lefthand couldn’t take that uncertainty.
Her grandkids play sports and come home hungry. Even with SNAP benefits, her grocery budget didn’t keep up.
“Toward the end of the month, I’d just be feeding my kids plain rice; and my cousin brings me deer meat. So I usually just feed them plain rice and whatever I can find,” Lefthand says.
About 10% of the U.S. population struggles with food security. For American Indians, that number is nearly 50%, according to federal data.
About 10% of the U.S. population struggles with food security. For American Indians, that number is nearly 50%, according to federal data.
CSKT Reservation residents can either enroll in SNAP, or the federally funded commodity program, but not both.
CSKT commodities director Nicholas White says his office has been busy. He points to a thick stack of applications.
“That stack right there is of the people that are coming over to our program.”
Tribes with commodity programs say it’s been a good backstop. But tribal officials and nonprofits have found other ways to help hungry families. They slaughtered bison from their herds and used funding to hand out gift cards to grocery stores. A nonprofit on the Fort Belknap Reservation purchased cattle to send to food banks.
Yadira Rivera with the First Nations Institute says that helped in the short term, but that’s money tribes won’t get back.
“That’s going to leave them with a future problem of maybe not having enough access.”
That could mean less money for tribal food programs down the road. Many tribes’ bison herds are still small. If they harvested more animals during the shutdown, that means less meat in the future.
Families may also see ripple effects.
Georgetown Law Professor David Super says many families that didn’t have an alternative to SNAP likely skipped rent and other bills. Super says studies have shown what happens to people when they lose food aid.
“There are a lot of people who get evicted when they lose food aid, because they spend their housing money on food. You have to eat, and that gets them out on the street.”
He says that’s likely to happen in the coming weeks and months.
There can also be implications for SNAP enrollees’ health because they can’t afford food and medications.
Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan is a professor of Medicine at Oklahoma State University.
“If you go without taking your diabetes medication, you can see pretty immediate effects of that, that may involve landing you in the emergency room.”
She says people on SNAP rely on cheaper food during tough times. But those foods tend to be processed, high in sugar and fat. That can make chronic health conditions like diabetes worse.
Back at the CSKT commodity warehouse, Lefthand is grateful she was able to switch. She’d be in a tough spot otherwise.
“I’d have to pass up paying a bill to actually get groceries.”
Lefthand plans to switch back to SNAP once payments stabilize. But she’ll have to find a way to live without food from CSKT’s program for a month before she can qualify for SNAP.
