‘Scraping by:’ Minnesota families struggle to find food options with SNAP benefits soon to run out
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As caretaker for her 23-year-old son with disabilities, Sarah Beiswanger tries to make sure he has plenty to eat. The 55-year-old Mankato woman makes grocery runs for her son, trying to stretch and make the most out of the meager amount of federal SNAP food aid he gets each month.
“Sixty-six dollars per month is what he got,” Beiswanger said. “So, it doesn’t go far at all. I shopped the sales and did coupons and everything, and I got him three bags of groceries, which, when they’re plastic bags. It’s not a lot.”
“He doesn’t quite get it, which to a degree I’m glad,” Beiswanger added. “But then I had to say, ‘No, I can’t pick up such and such at the grocery store because your SNAP is gone.’”
Beiswanger’s son is one of the more than 440,000 Minnesotans who rely on the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, who won’t receive benefits next month, which starts Saturday, if the federal government shutdown continues. She already supplements the few bags of groceries purchased with his SNAP benefits with a weekly run to the ECHO Food Shelf in Mankato, and Beiswanger digs into her own wallet, too, to make sure her son has enough to eat. And she’s worried about what other support programs might become casualties to the bitter political impasse in Washington.
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“Do they go back and give him what he would have gotten on SNAP (if the shutdown ends)? Or are we still scraping by?” Beiswanger said. “It’s just scary because right now, it’s SNAP. But does that mean his medical assistance gets impacted at some point? Or does that mean his housing voucher gets impacted at some point? There’s all these what ifs, and it makes you tired.”
Beiswanger’s exhaustion and stress is multiplied by mounting medical bills for her husband’s cancer treatments, rising grocery prices and worries that another son who is in the military won’t be paid. She said it’s “exhausting” for her family to try and put food on the table.
“I struggle with that because they’re doing everything they’re supposed to do, and they’re doing the right thing,” Beiswanger said. “But they’re being penalized. I struggle with that.”
A strained system
Gov. Tim Walz announced this week that the state will provide one-time emergency funding of $4 million for food shelves in Minnesota. But that hardly makes a dent in the estimated $73 million in federal funding that the state receives each month for SNAP benefits. Hunger relief advocates say even if the loss in SNAP benefits is temporary, the impacts can be long lasting.
Sophia Lenarz-Coy, executive director of The Food Group, said delaying benefits by even just a month can have dire consequences for those in need.
“Food is one of the most cost effective ways that we can look out for our community, whether it’s looking at health outcomes, the efficacy of certain medications, reduced obesity and chronic disease, even school attendance,” Lenarz-Coy said. “I think the ripple effects could be incredibly dramatic on the emergency food system.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joined 22 other attorneys general and three governors this week in filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over the suspension of the SNAP benefits program. The legal action also seeks a temporary restraining order to halt SNAP funding cuts while the lawsuit proceeds.
Food shelves across the state are bracing for a big surge of people in need of fresh produce, milk, eggs, meat and other food essentials as SNAP benefits run out. And many were already strained by rising prices, earlier federal funding cuts, and increased need. Steele County in southern Minnesota, for example, saw the fourth largest increase in food shelf visits in the state from 2023 to 2024.
Dom Korbel serves as executive director of Community Pathways of Steele County, the second largest food shelf in the region, serving about 1,300 families a week. Korbel said he’s concerned about the increasing number of visitors coming from other areas out of the county, stretching resources thin for his and other food shelves
“People are going to definitely get less food. I worry for those living in really small communities where their food shelf is already stretched, this is going to be tough,” Korbel said. “Like really tough. If it’s going to be tough on us, these smaller food shelves across the state and even country are going to be really, really struggling to meet the need.”
Mobilizing efforts
In many communities across Minnesota, some families, small businesses and farmers are mobilizing to try to help fill in gaps to feed neighbors who will likely lose SNAP benefits.
In Waseca, the Barefoot Lane MN microbakery is giving away free bread and extra eggs. In Waldorf, Cedar Crate Farm is giving away extra produce from its harvest to help feed families who are hungry.
Cally Roberts, 30, owner of Salt and Fern Bakehaus in North Mankato, is giving away sourdough starters to anyone in the community who is losing SNAP benefits. It’s something she started doing during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide sustenance and skills and they started giving them out in masse recently. She says she’s received donations of flour and eggs and distributes starters to anyone who brings a clean jar. Roberts also plans to teach sourdough classes through the Blue Earth County Library System.
“Why not be able to give it to the community so they can also both feed themselves and their family …in regards to bread making or other kitchen skills that are just valuable for life,” Roberts said.
Roberts says giving in this way is an easy decision to make, because she knows how important SNAP benefits are in helping stabilize families and individuals as they work to try to get ahead.
“I remember having to be on it back in college when I was working three jobs and still not making enough to support myself,” Roberts said. “And it was absolutely invaluable to me back then to be able to continue in my education.
Correction (Nov. 1, 2025): A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Sarah Beiswanger. It has been updated.
