10/29/2025
Oh SNAP!
Still waiting to wake up from these hallucinations that all is well, as that guy on TV lauds the USA as the “hottest” country on earth, and everyone, from rich to poor, is prospering.
We must all be hallucinating, prompted by the overblown stock market and the building boom, which leads us to question ourselves: what do they know we don’t?
SNAP benefits run out on November 1st! Forty million men, women and children will go hungry! When was the last time we saw this tragedy unfold? Of course, 2020 and COVID-19 arrived with little to no notice, and millions lost their jobs and source of income. With nowhere to turn, it fell on the poorly run, sparsely stocked local food banks. They quickly collapsed under the strain of the immediacy of demand for food.
I’m concerned that we may face a similar disaster when SNAP benefits expire in a few days. The food banks are already struggling to maintain, and the crisis has not even begun.
As with COVID-19 , the help for this current looming crisis will primarily be led by the private sector. No one can rely on our elected leaders to fix this, nor can they be trusted to care. Our food security system is broken and will quickly fold under this foreseen pressure.
The Subculture Group will begin on Monday, November 3rd, offering free meals to any SNAP beneficiary in need.
Howleys, Dada, Hullabaloo, Shanghai’d, Tryst, and all Subculture Coffee locations will offer a daily free meal to those individuals and families who rely on our government to assist them with the absolute basic necessity of life: food.
We hope the leaders will address this issue before then and, at the very least, immediately fund the SNAP program so that there is no gap in food subsidies.
Not holding our breaths…
We will launch a website by Monday, providing locations and details for those who have lost their SNAP benefits.
I urge my fellow restaurateurs to consider providing food to those in need in the coming weeks.
I hope it doesn’t come down to this, but if it does, we will be ready to help as many people as possible, starting next week.
I hope our hallucinations take on a more tranquil tone in the near future.
Rodney
The DeSantis administration is warning nearly 3 million Floridians who rely on federal food assistance that their benefits won’t be available in November due to the federal government shutdown. “If the federal government shutdown continues into November, (supplemental nutrition assistance progra...