The Government Shutdown Has Made a Bad Situation in Alabama Even Worse

The government shutdown has been very personal for me and my community in Alabama.

As a 41-year-old mom of two children on the autism spectrum and a long time caregiver for many members of my family, I depend on government programs like food stamps, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to make sure I can feed my family.

SNAP benefits are our entire food budget and with both of my children’s food sensory issues, they can’t eat a lot of what is available at food banks and pantries. I was able to use all of October’s benefits to stock up on their food items, but we’ll definitely be in trouble if the government shutdown continues and we don’t receive November’s benefits. 

And before some of you accuse me of being lazy, despite a lack of child care or family support, I am actively searching for a job. And I already donate plasma weekly and do side gig work — pet sitting, laundry services, house cleaning to name a few — to pay bills outside of getting groceries.

And I’m by no means the only one suffering under the shutdown. Alabama is among the poorest states in our country, with upwards of 15 percent of residents living below the poverty line. And Alabama residents receive more than $60 billion a year from the federal government in the form of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veteran’s benefits, and unemployment payments.

While more than 750,000 Alabamians supplement their grocery budgets through SNAP, our own Senator Tommy Tuberville has used racist and hateful language to describe recipients, including during a recent MSNBC interview when he said that “[there’s] a lot of young men on SNAP that should be working.” If that wasn’t clear enough, Tuberville also noted that it was Democrats’ constituents in “inner cities” that needed SNAP.

Not only do Tuberville’s comments perpetuate anti-Black stereotypes, but they also ignore that 47 percent of households in Alabama that receive SNAP benefits support a disabled person, while 34 percent of the families have older adults. Forty-nine percent of the households relying on SNAP, like my own, have children.

The loss of food benefits is already affecting many hard-working families that are doing all that they can to get by. 

This loss will have an immediate and direct impact on the local economy as SNAP recipients won’t be able to use their benefits to purchase groceries. Community stores will suffer. They will lose profits and then cut their employees’ hours to save money. 

With the holiday season coming up, I reached out to local businesses, clergymembers, and food banks in my area to organize ways for kids and their families to have access to food this winter.

Our communities coming together to help each other is great, but we need more. Food banks and pantries are overwhelmed during the holiday season whether there’s a government shutdown or not.

Our communities were immiserated before the shutdown and will continue to struggle even if funding is restored. What we need is a more compassionate government, and that’s not going to come from Donald Trump or his people.

It breaks my heart to see people around me — people that go to church, mind you — saying that people on benefits are lazy. Basically saying that people don’t deserve to live if they need assistance. 

I can even understand if you think adults are lazy and that they should know better, but what about the children? You fight against abortion, you force people to have children they can’t afford, but when it comes time to feed them you turn your back.

Change is going to have to come from us. I’m proud of having rallied our community to gather resources so we can all make it through this winter. But as long as our government keeps working for the rich at the expense of the rest of us, things are only going to get worse.