By Audrey Elwood, Campus Editor

Due to the government shutdown, federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ran dry on Nov. 1. Both Ohio and Kentucky are using their emergency funds to help supplement this. 

SNAP benefits were first introduced in the 1930s as a way to help mitigate the effects of the great depression. People would buy $1 orange stamps and get an extra 50 cents in blue stamps. This is where the term food stamps originates from. As of late October 2025, 1.45 million people in Ohio and 600,000 people rely on SNAP. One in nine people in Ohio and one in eight in Kentucky receive benefits. 

To participate in SNAP, a household must make below 130% of the federal poverty level or $3,482.92 per month. 

62% of all Ohio households that receive SNAP have a child, while 43% have an elderly member. The counties in Ohio that will be most affected, are all in the Appalachian and southeastern areas of the state. The county that will be the most affected it Pike county, with 26.2% of households receiving SNAP benefits, according to WLWT.com.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has pledged $7 million toward Ohio Food Banks and is setting aside $18 million for the Ohio Works First program families. Ohio Works First is a program that offers benefits to families with young children up to 36 months. Ohio received in October 2025 $264 million dollars in SNAP benefits. The Ohio state government is pledging around 5% of total benefits used monthly. 

“In the past week alone, my department (Ohio Benefits Long Term Services and Supports) has seen an increase in our number of callers looking strictly for assistance getting home delivered meals,” junior social work major and employee at Carestar, a case management company, Kelly Witwer said. “People spend upwards of 20 hours on the phone, get repeatedly transferred, only to land at my department where we can only refer them to community resources.” 

Across the river in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear has signed an executive order, to send $5 million to food banks across the state, and $12 million dollars to the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. The parts heavily affected will largely be the eastern parts of the state, some counties in the region having over 30% of people on SNAP, according to WLKY.com. 

The average Kentucky family receives $368 dollars per month from SNAP according to an emergency statement address by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, with 600,000 Kentuckians on the program. Both Dewine and Beshear have called on residents of each state to donate to a local food pantry. 

“People are angry, depressed and anxious. Looking at the situation from a criminology perspective, this situation can make people desperate.” Witwer said. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better at this point.”