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Essays
Nov 10, 2025

Beyond Politics: The Human Side of SNAP

By Leah Mouw

How does experiencing the reality of another’s need shift our perspective, revealing the dignity and struggle that often live together unseen in our communities?

I was still in my mother’s womb when death already impacted me. My mother was six weeks pregnant, suddenly widowed, with six other children already at home and an eighth-grade education, Mom faced a future that looked impossible—raising children poor in a small Minnesota town where everyone knew everyone’s business.

Every first of the month, we drove thirty miles to the next county for groceries. As a kid I thought it was an adventure. Years later I learned the truth: Mom was too ashamed to use food stamps in our hometown. She did not want the cashier who taught me Sunday school, or the neighbor who sat behind us in church, to see the little peach-colored vouchers that kept her children fed.

Some people say the poor choose to stay poor, and perhaps that is true in certain situations. However, they have never watched a widow wake up early to clean offices, then rush to a second job at the nursing home, then come home to stretch $32 in food stamps across seven hungry mouths for thirty days. My mother didn’t choose poverty. Poverty chose her the day Dad’s heart stopped. What she did choose was to teach us that work-any work-was honorable, and that tomorrow could be better if we refused to quit.

Leviticus 19 told farmers to leave edges of their fields for the poor. Jesus fed 5,000 not because they earned it, but because they were hungry.

I am no longer on food stamps, but I will fight to keep them available for every family who wakes up to the knock of sudden tragedy.

That’s why the current government shutdown hits me harder than most policy fights. This isn’t politics. This is my childhood all over. Only now it’s 250,000 Iowa neighbors wondering if their EBT cards will work this month.

What are SNAP benefits?

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), what my family called food stamps, is the nation’s largest anti-hunger program. It helps low-income families buy groceries at stores, farmers’ markets, and even online through Amazon and Walmart (USDA, 2025a).

In Iowa, HHS runs it as the Food Assistance Program, serving more than 250,000 people, 131,000 households, with about $45 million in benefits every month (Iowa HHS, 2025).

In some ways, SNAP is modern-day gleaning. Leviticus 19 told farmers to leave edges of their fields for the poor. Jesus fed 5,000 not because they earned it, but because they were hungry.

How do SNAP benefits work?

SNAP benefits are distributed through an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card that functions like a debit card, restricted to eligible food items such as fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy (USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, 2025a). Eligibility is based on income, typically up to 130 percent of the federal poverty level, along with household size and work status (Iowa HHS, 2025; SNAP Screening, n.d.).

In Iowa, you qualify if your gross income is under 130% of the poverty line. Most able-bodied adults must work 20 hours a week unless they are raising little kids or disabled. Benefits arrive once a month. Growing up, ours always hit on the 4th, which is why Mom scheduled her shopping trip like clockwork.

That steady rhythm felt like the manna in Exodus 16: God showing up exactly when He said He would.

How dependent are people on SNAP?

Nationwide, 41 million people use SNAP. In Iowa, one in eight. Most recipients are kids, seniors, or working parents who still come up short. For the poorest families, SNAP covers 70–100% of their food budget (Gundersen & Ziliak, 2015).

When I hear politicians sneer about “dependency,” I want to hand them my third-grade school picture, gap-toothed, wearing my sister’s hand-me-down shirt, and ask if they think that little girl chose being poor.

Behind every statistic is a story like that—one far more complex, and human, than numbers can capture. Each person’s situation is shaped not solely by individual choices but also by economic policy and wages, tragedy and opportunity. The truth is anyone can find themselves needing help—after a layoff or an unexpected medical bill. SNAP isn’t about dependency; it’s about making sure the simplest of needs is met during the hardest seasons of life.

How people and communities are affected by delayed SNAP benefits

Delayed benefits mean skipped meals, cheaper food, more stress. Kids act out at school because their stomachs hurt. Seniors choose between medicine and bread. Rural grocery stores lose up to 30% of sales overnight (Des Moines Register, 2025b).

In small towns, folks still leave bags of groceries on porches without asking names. That quiet Iowa kindness is beautiful, but it’s not enough when the need is this massive.

Spiritually, this feels like the widow’s mite in reverse. The poor are giving everything, pride, health, hope, while those with power argue over budgets.

When we see hunger through the eyes of another, we’re reminded that meeting a need is...a matter of compassion and concern for the humanity of our communities.

The role of food pantries

Recently, pantries have been overrun by a sudden increase in demand. Des Moines Area Religious Councils (DMARC)14 sites served 1,000 households a week. The Food Bank of Iowa covers 55 counties and is still short. Demand is up 20–50% (Iowa Capital Dispatch, 2025).

Volunteers are exhausted. Shelves are bare. Yet every night, church basements light up with people living out Matthew 25: “I was hungry and you gave me food.”

How does a government shutdown affect SNAP?

The shutdown that began October 1, 2025, now the longest in U.S. history at 40 days, ripped an $8–9 billion hole straight through SNAP’s budget. For the first time ever, November benefits simply vanished for millions or were slashed to as little as 65% of normal. Here in Iowa, more than 270,000 people woke up November 1 to empty EBT cards, the state left scrambling with a $45 million shortfall for this month alone.

On November 9, the Senate finally broke the stalemate. In a 60-40 vote, they advanced the bipartisan “American Families First Act,” which will reopen the government, fund Agriculture (and SNAP) at full levels through September 2026, and include a short-term CR through January 30. The House is expected to pass it, and President Trump has already signaled he’ll sign.

As soon as that pen hits paper, Iowa and every other state can reload every missing November dollar and lock in full December benefits—no more fractions, and no more take-backs. The nightmare that turned kitchen tables into battlegrounds is almost over.

As I think about the future of SNAP programs in Iowa and nationwide, I still see my mom in our old kitchen, counting paper vouchers under the flickering light, praying the numbers would stretch just one more week. I pray that this time might be the last that a family must live the harsh reality of my childhood.

A path forward

Looking to the future, there are some steps that could be taken to help alleviate the increased needs when SNAP benefits are delayed, such as tapping deeper emergency funds or building larger contingency reserves. We could also work toward funding local farms and teaching churches to tithe in harvests again. While these steps are good and helpful, ultimately, a mindset shift is needed.

Most of all, remember the face of the hungry. For me, that face still looks like my mother—tired, and proud, counting food stamps in a parking lot thirty miles from home so her kids could eat without the burden of shame.

I beat poverty in part because SNAP bought me time to grow up, study hard, and walk through doors my mother never had. Now it’s my turn to hold those doors open for the next child riding shotgun on the first-of-the-month grocery run.

As we seek to care for others in the way that Jesus did, we are reminded that love is shown most clearly in how we meet one another’s needs. When we see hunger through the eyes of another, we’re reminded that meeting a need is not a matter of dependency, but a matter of compassion and concern for the humanity of our communities.

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References

About the Author

Leah Mouw

Dr. Leah Mouw serves as assistant professor of social work as well as the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program director at Dordt University. Her social work experience spans hospice, hospitals, schools, adoption, foster care, crisis intervention, and private practice.

Licensed in California and Iowa, Dr. Mouw is trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT), Narrative Therapy, and Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD). Her research interests focus on the mental health crisis in adolescents and young adults, particularly stress and anxiety, as well as access to psychiatric care for children and adolescents.

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