More than 37,000 residents of Lorain County will lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in November due to the ongoing government shutdown, according to open data published by the state of Ohio. The federal government has largely ceased operations since Oct. 1 due to an ongoing partisan standoff over issues including federal spending, foreign aid, and healthcare. Without an appropriations bill to fund the government, and no path to passing one in sight, the Department of Agriculture announced Monday that it will cease all SNAP food benefits on Nov. 1.
“Bottom line, the well has run dry,” a notice pinned at the top of the Department of Agriculture’s website reads. “At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.”
Residents packed the waiting room of Oberlin Community Services Wednesday afternoon, as the line for the organization’s food pantry stretched out the door. Jason Hawk, communications director for OCS, said that the center has seen a marked rise in the number of families seeking food assistance since the shutdown began.
“There are a lot of clients who are coming to the food pantry, and they’re voicing real concerns about being anxious and nervous about what the next couple of months are going to hold,” Hawk said.
The loss of benefits will affect thousands of Lorain County residents, more than 11 percent of whom rely on SNAP to some degree. In September 2025, county residents received a combined $6 million in food assistance through the SNAP program.
The modern SNAP program, which began in 1939, provides low-income households with monthly funds that can be used at grocery stores or other food vendors. In 2024, over 41 million people in the U.S. were enrolled in SNAP, receiving a cumulative over $99 billion in food assistance that year.
The impending loss of benefits has sparked debate in the Ohio statehouse, with Democrats in the State Senate introducing a measure to fund SNAP to an unrelated spending bill that subsequently failed to pass, according to reporting from Signal Ohio. State Republicans have called on Democrats in Congress to bring an end to the shutdown and reopen the government, while State Democrats have encouraged Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to declare a state of emergency and allocate $100 million to food aid.
Hawk said that every year, the pantry sees a surge in demand in the early fall, but demand this year has outpaced that trend. Since September, roughly 400 families have received food assistance from the pantry each week, up from 300 in previous years.
The impacts of the shutdown may soon be felt by the pantry, which receives almost 90 percent of its food stock from the Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio. Federal shipments to food banks across the country, including Second Harvest, have halted due to the shutdown.
Beginning this week, Oberlin College Facilities Operations will be collecting donations for the OCS food pantry. Donations can be delivered to the Facilities Operations office in the Service Building between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
