The federal food assistance program that 42 million Americans and more than 900,000 Arizonans rely on will be suspended on Saturday, Nov. 1. This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would not dip into its $6 billion contingency fund to continue paying for critical food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The Trump administration’s move to withhold this funding is a bargaining chip in the ongoing government shutdown. It will prevent the most vulnerable Americans from receiving dollars on debit-like EBT cards to shop for groceries. SNAP, sometimes called food stamps, is the biggest anti-hunger program in the country. Arizona and 21 other states have sued to prevent food assistance from being cut off.
Amid this chaos, one Phoenix restaurant owner and her team decided to help the best way they know how: to feed people…