Theatrics Don’t Feed the Hungry — Lies Don’t Either
PITTSBURGH, PA – Two days ago, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins accused others of “theatrics” in the fight over food assistance – hoping you didn’t notice the real show happening on her own stage. Because what’s actually playing out right now isn’t political theater, it’s hunger. And it’s being orchestrated from the top of the very agency that is supposed to prevent it.
For the first time in the 60-year history of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), millions of Americans are at risk of missing their monthly benefits. Every previous government shutdown has been met with a way to fill the gaps. Never before has an administration simply refused to act.
Today – just one day before the start of a month without federal issuance of SNAP Benefits – two different judges ruled in two cases that contingency funds must be released. USDA has until Monday November 3rd to report back. Until now, USDA has failed to act in the best interest of our nation’s people by refusing to release legally available funds. Now, they are facing court orders to do so.
While these orders give us hope that this crisis will be short, SNAP benefits will still be delayed due to USDA failing to take initiative to do the right thing.
Let’s be clear about the law: the USDA maintains a contingency reserve specifically to ensure continuity of benefits during a funding lapse. It is a moral and legal backstop against mass hunger. And yet, Secretary Rollins abandoned the viable solution, and deflected blame onto “Democrats,” “illegals,” and “gender mutilation” for the suspension of benefits — a grotesque distraction that has nothing to do with the crisis at hand. It’s a strategy we’ve seen before: create division and scapegoat marginalized groups without power.
When a public official weaponizes hunger to score political points, that’s not leadership. It’s cruelty masquerading as conviction. It’s not the politicians who go hungry – it’s families.
It shows staggering immorality that this administration had to be sued to do the right thing. Instead of looking out for Americans, they spent time dragging their feet, blaming the radical left, and demonizing immigrants and trans folks. USDA could have just done the right thing from day one to avoid all of this confusion and harm.
At Just Harvest, a nonprofit based in Pittsburgh, we hear from families every day; Seniors choosing between food and medicine, veterans who served this country who are now waiting in line at food pantries, and grocery store clerks asking if they’ll still have a job next month if SNAP dollars disappear.
These aren’t statistics or talking points. They are our neighbors — people whose survival depends on a program that costs less than two percent of the federal budget and lifts millions out of poverty every year. Every day that passes without action is another day a child goes to bed hungry, a senior skips dinner, or a community food pantry buckles under the strain of a crisis that never had to happen.
SNAP is not a handout. It’s one of the most efficient, rigorously tested anti-poverty tools in the United States. For every $1 in benefits, $1.50 or more in local economic activity is generated. It keeps small grocers and farmers in business. It reduces childhood hunger and improves long-term health outcomes. And, it does all of this with an error rate so low that private corporations could only dream of such efficiency.
More than 80% of SNAP benefits go to households with children, seniors, or people with disabilities. These are not “work-capable adults refusing to contribute.” They are families working full-time jobs that still don’t earn enough to survive. They are grandparents raising grandchildren on fixed incomes. They are people doing everything right in an economy that is stacked against them.
In my 15 years working on anti-hunger policy, I have never seen such a reckless and cynical display of power — one that harms the very people public service exists to protect. Secretary Rollins previously referred to SNAP as “corrupt and bloated” in efforts to cut and reform the program – and now deceitfully claims to defend it when politically convenient.
What Secretary Rollins hypocritically calls “theatrics” is actually democracy in motion — lawmakers and advocates fighting with genuine will to make sure people can eat. That is not political posturing. That is moral responsibility.
Theatrics don’t feed the hungry. But lies — especially those told from positions of authority — can starve millions.
We need leadership rooted in truth, not propaganda. In compassion, not cruelty. And, we need leaders with the humility to admit when ideology has gone too far, and the government must simply focus on their job to feed our nation. Starving people to make a political point is not governance. It’s abuse.
Releasing the funds is greater than politics — it’s an act of humanity.
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Attributed to Heather Seiders, Executive Director, Just Harvest
Contact Us:
Katherine Taylor, Communications Coordinator, katherinet@justharvest.org
Ann Sanders, Director of Public Benefits Policy and Programs, anns@justharvest.org
Heather Seiders, Interim Executive Director, heathers@justharvest.org
