SNAP Benefits End: Take Action to Help the Hungry in Our Community

October 31, 2025

Today’s letter is an important joint message to our community from the leadership of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and Jewish Family Service.

Dear Jewish Community,

As we sit down with our families for Shabbat dinner tonight, we are acutely aware that the nearly 1 million Washingtonians (more than half of whom are families with children), and the majority of the 5,000 clients at Jewish Family Service (JFS), who rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may not be able to feed their families next week because of the government shutdown.

This week, both of us have heard directly from members of our Jewish community, friends or neighbors, who perhaps, like you, might be concerned about their ability to make ends meet without SNAP. The fear expressed in the news in recent days and the real human toll that the pausing of SNAP benefits will lead to in the weeks ahead are not far-off concerns, they are here and now.

JFS has the only Kosher food bank in the state and, like other food banks, is already facing surging demand – visits increased 35% in the first half of 2025 as compared to the last half of 2024. And, food banks cannot address this crisis alone. For every one meal provided by food banks, SNAP provides nine.

We’re partnering to ensure no one in our community goes hungry, and we need your help.

Here is how you can take action:

1. JFS is giving $150 grocery gift cards to the nearly 1,300 clients who have the greatest need for food assistance. We need your help to make sure we can provide food for our neighbors.

2. Urge Congress to fund November SNAP benefits. Washington state’s anti-hunger coalition is urging our communities to take action through MAZON, a national Jewish organization fighting to end hunger. Even during a government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has contingency funding available to keep the SNAP program functioning. Ask Members of Congress to pressure the USDA to immediately deploy contingency funding, release guidance to states, and find additional dollars to help families facing hunger.

If you need help, reach out to JFS or your local food bank. More help locating food resources is available from the Washington Department of Agriculture online or by phone at 360-725-5640. Washington 211 is a free, confidential service that can help you connect with resources.

Jewish tradition is explicit in commanding that we feed the hungry. Midrash says, “When you are asked in the world to come, ‘What was your work?’ and you answer: ‘I fed the hungry,’ you will be told: ‘This is the gate of God, enter into it, you who have fed the hungry’” (Midrash Tehilim).

Our collective action as a Jewish community is needed. On this Shabbat, we hope you will reach out if you need support and join us in gratitude for the food on your table while also fulfilling the Jewish imperative to feed the hungry.

Shabbat Shalom,