Heading into week four of the federal government shutdown, North Carolina Congresswoman Deborah Ross joined local food bank leaders in Raleigh on Wednesday to discuss food insecurity and SNAP benefits.
Ross, a Democrat representing the state’s second congressional district since 2021, talked about food banks starting up for federal workers in the area. She said she heard the first one opened this week for airport employees.
While she has statistics on the number of federal employees in her district who are relying on food banks, the figures change every day due to the Trump administration firing people and placing them on furlough, Ross said.
Kimberly Burrows, chief development officer at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, described the situation as a “perfect storm.”
The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh has seen fewer donations recently as of Oct. 22, 2025. (Photo: Christine Zhu/NC Newsline)In addition to losing federal money, post-pandemic funding dried up as well. This leaves food banks unable to purchase produce from local farmers, leading to a loss of revenue for that group, who in turn come to the food pantries to get help for their families.
“We’re seeing an increase in need,” Burrows said. “While there are food drives, we’re seeing less being donated because people don’t have supplemental income to go and buy that extra box of macaroni when they’re at the grocery store.”
Since the start of the year, Ross has been to multiple food banks in the area. She said she knew the Trump administration would attack food programs because of similar proposals from his first term.
The programs under threat range from Meals on Wheels for seniors and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program for pregnant women and newborns to food pantries for veterans and at North Carolina State University for students.
“Food banks are a lifeline for so many families, and it crosses all political lines, urban, rural, and all sorts of situations,” Ross said.
The government shutdown has exacerbated the situation in recent weeks. There was enough money for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which help low-income families, through October, but there may be disruptions in November.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services received a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture warning of possible impacts, but has “not yet been told exactly what that means for North Carolina,” according to the agency’s website.
In a news release last Friday, Gov. Josh Stein said NCDHHS does not currently have funding to continue WIC benefits past early November. There is no certainty that more funding is coming, he said.
“It’s time for all elected officials to do their jobs and get government working like it should — for the people,” Stein said in the statement.
There are 1.4 million people statewide who rely on SNAP to help feed their families, according to NCDHHS. More than 700,000 households receive benefits each month, and 80% of North Carolina families participating in SNAP have either a child, senior, or an adult with a disability.
There are about 582,569 children in the state who rely on SNAP as of Oct. 12, according to NCDHHS.
“This is a complete abdication of responsibility from our Republican Congress and our president,” Ross said. “It’s cruelty. It’s hitting people in the place that makes them feel the least secure, the ability to get the nutrition that they need at the times that they need it.”
“We should be back in session. We should be voting. We should be getting out federal budgets together. We should be taking care of the ACA tax credits,” Ross said. “But instead, here we are.”
Federal programs supply the lion’s share of food aid to the states. Without those federal funds, responsibility falls upon the states to supply money for these food programs. But North Carolina’s legislature hasn’t passed a budget yet this session. That pushes the burden down to counties, local organizations, and nonprofits, Ross said.
State lawmakers have returned to Raleigh this week. Ross criticized Republican legislative leaders for focusing on redistricting rather than passing a budget with additional funding to help North Carolinians receive aid with food.
“In addition to not caring about our people’s food security and their health care, they don’t care about people’s right to fair representation, and so they’ve decided to redraw the maps in the eastern part of the state to get another Republican seat and erase more than 30 years of representation from northeastern North Carolina and predominantly African American rural areas,” she said.
Republican legislative leaders did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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