Area residents are concerned about their ability to continue putting food on the table after funding difficulties at the federal level have prompted changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) this month.  

There are almost 26,000 people receiving SNAP benefits through the Mid-Illinois Family & Community Resource Center, and those individuals now face uncertainty regarding when and how much of their benefits they will receive this month. 

Those people are part of the nearly 42 million Americans who are on SNAP benefits. Due to the shutdown of the federal government, the SNAP program has struggled to sustain enough funding to continue issuing benefits.  

Amid the uncertainty, residents visited the Charleston Area Churches Food Pantry on Wednesday.  

There was a line of people outside the food pantry waiting to be assisted. Carts filled with food were being pushed in and out of the building by volunteers as the food bank experienced a rush of demand. Due to the nature of the situation, nearly everyone in line declined to provide comment to The News.  

Ashton Systo, a SNAP program recipient, shared her concerns about the SNAP funding issues. She said that her initial reaction to the situation was anger.  

“I work two jobs, and yet you’re still taking taxes out of my paychecks,” she said. “Now, I don’t even have the funds to be able to feed my family. So, I’m having to work extra and come to food pantries.” 

Systo is also concerned about being able to keep up with utility payments. 

“My light is probably going to be shut off. I have an appointment to get help with that now because I haven’t paid it this month to try to have food to eat,” she said.  

Systo’s food purchasing choices have changed because of her concerns about the SNAP situation. She said that she has been relying on unhealthy foods.  

“I’ve definitely been eating the bare minimum, like spaghetti and hotdogs, anything that you can get for under $10 that will feed a family,” she said. “It’s very unhealthy — you can’t get apples or any healthy items for $10.” 

The director of the food pantry, Todd Foster, said that the amount of people that they usually serve has tripled within the span of three weeks.  

“We normally have 20 families a day. Today, we were up to 50 so far. It’s been that way every day for the past three weeks,” he said. 

According to Foster, the food pantry has been struggling to keep up with the increasing demand.  

“We have three times as much food going out and nowhere near as much money coming in from our personal donations,” he said.  

Foster believes that the increased demand at the food pantry has been created by panic and fear about the potential of a SNAP benefit halt.  

The Charleston Area Churches Food Pantry only allows citizens to visit once every 30 days, he said. 

The uncertainty about the future of SNAP benefits has been prompted by changes happening at the federal level.  

The USDA had originally planned to halt the issuance of all SNAP benefits by the start of the month because it could no longer afford to support them.  

Two federal judges then ruled that the government was required to continue providing funds to the SNAP program, and it was announced on Monday that an emergency fund would be used to provide $4.65 billion to the program, which is a little over half of the typical monthly SNAP budget, according to a PBS News article. 

A Wednesday memorandum from the USDA indicated that allocations for SNAP benefits would be reduced by only 35%, meaning that recipients would potentially receive 65% of their usual benefits.  

On Friday, the USDA released another memorandum, this time indicating that it was seeking to issue full benefits to recipients in accordance with a Thursday district court ruling.  

However, the Supreme Court issued an order on Friday that temporarily halted any requirement for the government to issue full SNAP benefits. The order is intended to give more time for a lower appeals court to rule on a longer-term decision about the issuance of the benefits, according to an AP article. 

As of August 2025, there were 13,683 households and 25,595 individuals receiving SNAP benefits through the Mid-Illinois FCRC, according to a SNAP data report from the Illinois Department of Human Services.  

The Mid-Illinois FCRC serves Coles, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham and Shelby counties, according to the report. 

Eastern assistant professor of social work Hyeri Choi said people can expect low-income families to struggle with supplemental resources, and they can also expect the funding issues to cause other problems for the community.  

“The budget cut doesn’t just stop at SNAP, but it will have spillover effects on many different areas,” she said. “Now, you’re spending your income on your food. You have less budget towards your utility bill and hospital fees and maybe your child care costs. So, for people in a low-income household, that’s very detrimental. Material hardship will go up.” 

Choi said that with the rise of material hardship, there could be an increase in the homeless population because utility payments will be hard to manage due to spending on food consumption.  

In addition, she said that the SNAP funding problems could have an impact on child development because of increased parental stress. 

“These hardships will also increase parental stress, which will lead to negative parental behavior towards their children, such as spanking. That will affect children according to the family stress model. So, not only will it affect material hardship, but it will affect their relationship with their children,” she said.   

Looking at the larger-scale effects of the SNAP funding difficulties, Choi said that there could be financial trouble. 

“We might pay more taxes if the budget is cut, if there are more homeless people and people under child protection services because of child abuse. It might cause larger problems,” she said.  

Choi predicts that SNAP recipients in places like Coles County will be especially affected because they reside in rural areas. 

Communities like Charleston don’t have access to as many food pantries as urban areas do, she said.  

“This will make our supplemental poverty rate increase,” Choi said.  

Coles County had the seventh-highest poverty rate by population and the 23rd greatest number of people in poverty out of 102 counties in Illinois, according to a U.S. Census Bureau American Communities Survey report. The report contains poverty estimates based on data collected from 2019-23.  

“Food pantries, food donations and nonprofit organizations are the only way we can thrive right now in the short term. The role of these organizations gets more critical when the government gets smaller,” Choi said. 

According to Crystal Brown, associate director at the office of leadership & engagement, EIU has already made efforts to provide students with resources during the SNAP funding issues by increasing the number of food pantry visits a student is allowed each month.  

“As long as the government is shut down and SNAP is not released, students will be able to visit the campus food pantry once a week until SNAP starts getting distributed again,” she said.  

She encouraged any students needing additional support to reach out to her.