An Oakland restaurant’s viral Instagram post last week had a ripple effect in the Bay Area: “Monster Pho will now offer children a free meal until the SNAP is funded,” it said.
Several other restaurants then followed Monster Pho in offering free meals to the thousands of people who don’t have money to buy food this month because their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits have stalled during the federal government shutdown.
On Friday, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to keep paying SNAP benefits, after the government announced that the funds would dry up on Saturday. Still, the November payments remain delayed, and it is uncertain when the money will appear in recipients’ accounts this month, according to the California Department of Social Services. This impacts nearly 180,000 people in Alameda County…