Finding Food Assistance When You Need It
If you're struggling to put food on the table right now, you're not alone—and help is available. Here's how to find food assistance in your community:
Immediate Resources:
- Feeding America Network: Call 1-800-771-2303 or text your ZIP code to 304-304 to find the nearest food bank
- 211: Dial 2-1-1 from any phone for referrals to local food pantries, meal programs, and emergency assistance
- USDA National Hunger Hotline: 1-866-3-HUNGRY (1-866-348-6479) for help finding federal nutrition programs
- Local Houses of Worship: Many churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples operate food pantries—call those in your area
- School Districts: Even during breaks, many schools continue to serve free meals to children and families
- Community Action Agencies: Search "Community Action Partnership" plus your city/county name
Online Resources:
State Food Bank Networks (many states have their own food bank associations with locator maps):
- Search "[Your State] food bank association" or "[Your State] foodbank network" to find state-specific resources
- Most state networks provide detailed maps of food pantries, mobile food distributions, and emergency feeding programs
Apply for SNAP Benefits:
No one should feel ashamed about needing help. Using a food bank isn't a personal failure—it's a system that's failing working people.
The SNAP Crisis: Leaving Millions Behind
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—formerly known as food stamps—provides critical nutrition assistance to over 40 million Americans, including children, elderly people, and working families. But right now, this lifeline is under sustained attack.
What's Happening:
Congress has repeatedly pushed to cut SNAP funding and impose new restrictions that would kick millions off the program. Recent proposals have included:
- Work requirements that ignore the reality that most SNAP recipients already work or cannot work due to disability, age, or caregiving responsibilities
- Time limits that arbitrarily cut off assistance after a set period, regardless of need
- Asset tests that punish families for having modest savings or owning a reliable car they need to get to work
- Reduced benefit amounts that haven't kept pace with actual food costs
The 2023 debt ceiling deal forced states to expand work requirements for adults aged 50-54, pushing an estimated 750,000 people off food assistance. Many of these are people working low-wage jobs that don't provide enough hours or pay to cover basic needs.
The Real Impact:
When SNAP benefits are cut or eliminated, real people suffer:
- Children go hungry at school and struggle to concentrate
- Seniors skip meals to afford medications
- Working parents choose between feeding their kids and paying rent
- People with disabilities lose access to the nutrition they need to manage health conditions
- Local economies suffer as food assistance dollars stop circulating through grocery stores and farmers markets
SNAP isn't welfare—it's an economic stimulus and a moral imperative. Every $1 in SNAP benefits generates approximately $1.50 in economic activity. These benefits help families, support grocery stores and farmers, and strengthen entire communities.
Why Social Safety Nets Matter
The attacks on SNAP are part of a broader assault on the social safety net that working people depend on. For decades, we've been told that people are poor because they don't work hard enough, that social programs create "dependency," and that we simply can't afford to help everyone who needs it.
These are lies designed to protect corporate profits and extreme wealth.
The truth is:
- Most people who receive SNAP work. They're childcare providers, retail workers, restaurant staff, home health aides—people whose employers refuse to pay a living wage.
- Social safety nets don't create dependency—they prevent desperation. When people have food, housing, and healthcare, they're better able to find good work, pursue education, and contribute to their communities.
- We can absolutely afford robust social programs. The United States is the wealthiest country in human history. We choose to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and corporations instead of feeding children.
The social safety net isn't charity—it's the foundation of a civilized society. It's how we ensure that a temporary setback doesn't become a permanent crisis, that children don't suffer for their parents' circumstances, and that we all have the security to take risks, pursue opportunities, and build better lives.
The Labor Party's Vision: Food Security for All
The Labor Party believes that food is a human right, not a privilege. Nobody should go hungry in a country that produces more than enough food to feed everyone multiple times over. Our comprehensive food security platform doesn't just patch holes in the current system—it reimagines how we ensure everyone has access to nutritious food.
Expanding and Strengthening SNAP
We will:
Remove Barriers to Access
- Eliminate restrictive eligibility criteria and asset limits, ensuring that temporary job loss or modest savings don't disqualify families from getting help
- Implement automatic enrollment when families qualify for other assistance programs like Medicaid or WIC—no more byzantine application processes
- Tie benefits to actual food costs, with regular adjustments for inflation and local price variations, so SNAP actually covers what families need to buy
Make Benefits Work for Real Lives
- Expand eligibility to include more working families whose wages simply don't stretch far enough
- Remove arbitrary time limits that cut people off when they still need help
- End the punitive work requirements that ignore the reality of caregiving, disability, and underemployment
Universal Free School Meals
No child should worry about where their next meal is coming from. We will:
Guarantee Free Breakfast and Lunch for Every Student
- Provide universal free meals in all public schools—no applications, no stigma, no "lunch debt"
- Eliminate the shameful practice of denying meals to children whose families can't pay or singling them out with "alternate" meals
Extend Support Year-Round
- Fund and expand summer meal programs so children who depend on school meals continue eating during breaks
- Coordinate with community centers, libraries, and recreation facilities to serve as meal distribution points year-round
- Ensure meals are available during weekends, holidays, and unexpected school closures
Improve Meal Quality
- Partner with local farms and agricultural cooperatives to supply fresh, nutritious ingredients
- Support farm-to-school programs that benefit both children's health and local economies
Community-Based Food Access
Strong communities ensure nobody falls through the cracks. We will:
- Fund year-round meal sites operated by community organizations, especially in rural and underserved areas
- Integrate nutrition education into schools and community programs, teaching healthy eating and cooking skills
- Support local food banks and mutual aid networks with federal grants and coordination
Holding Corporations Accountable
Corporate greed is a major driver of food insecurity. We will:
Anti-Price Gouging Protections
- Cap annual price increases on essential foods at 5%, except when justified by documented cost increases
- Enforce stricter price controls during emergencies to prevent disaster profiteering
- Require transparency when corporations raise prices above permitted thresholds
- Impose significant fines on companies engaging in predatory pricing
Anti-Waste Requirements
- Require grocery stores and large retailers to donate at least 70% of non-expired surplus food to food banks, shelters, and community kitchens
- Fine businesses that waste food instead of donating it
- Provide tax incentives for companies that exceed donation minimums
- End the practice of destroying edible food to protect profit margins
The Bottom Line
Our food security platform isn't about charity—it's about justice. It's about recognizing that in a society this wealthy, hunger is a policy choice. We choose tax cuts for billionaires over feeding children. We choose corporate profits over ensuring seniors can afford groceries.
The Labor Party chooses differently.
We believe that everyone deserves to eat, that children shouldn't go to bed hungry, that working people shouldn't have to choose between food and rent, and that a wealthy society has a moral obligation to ensure no one goes without.
This Isn't Just About Food
The fight for food security is inseparable from the broader fight for economic justice:
- Living Wages: When people are paid fairly for their work, they can afford to feed their families. We're fighting to index the national minimum wage to the cost of living and strengthen collective bargaining so workers have real power.
- Universal Healthcare: Medical debt is a major cause of food insecurity. When families go bankrupt paying for cancer treatment, they can't buy groceries. Healthcare as a human right means food security too.
- Affordable Housing: When rent takes 50-60% of income, there's nothing left for food. Our comprehensive housing platform with rent stabilization and tenant protections means families can afford both.
- Strong Unions: Unionized workers earn higher wages, have better benefits, and have the security to demand fair treatment. Every victory for organized labor is a victory against hunger.
The same corporate interests fighting against SNAP are fighting against unions, against living wages, against affordable housing, and against healthcare access. They want us desperate, competing with each other for scraps, too worried about survival to demand fundamental change.
We refuse that future.
What You Can Do Right Now
If You Need Help:
- Use the resources at the top of this article to find food assistance
- Don't hesitate to ask for help—these programs exist because we all deserve to eat
- Connect with local mutual aid networks through social media or community centers
If You Want to Get Involved:
- Volunteer at your local food bank—they need people to sort, pack, and distribute food
- Organize a food drive in your workplace, school, or faith community
- Support local farmers markets that accept SNAP/EBT to strengthen community food systems
- Call your representatives and demand they protect and expand SNAP and other nutrition programs
Join the Movement:
The Labor Party is building political power for working people. We're organizing in every state to elect candidates who will fight for food security, living wages, healthcare access, and real economic justice.
This isn't just about elections—it's about movement-building. We're bringing together union members, tenant organizers, educators, healthcare workers, and working families to win real victories for our communities.
Ready to build a future where nobody goes hungry?
- Visit: votelabor.org
- Follow us on social media: @votelaborparty on Instagram and TikTok
- Get involved locally: Join a Labor Party chapter or organize one in your community
Remember This:
You deserve to eat. Your children deserve to eat. Your elderly neighbors deserve to eat. People with disabilities deserve to eat. Immigrants deserve to eat. Everyone deserves to eat.
Hunger isn't inevitable—it's a policy choice. And we can choose differently.
The Labor Party is fighting for a world where food is a guaranteed right, where social safety nets are robust and accessible, where working people have the power and security to live with dignity.
Because when we organize, when we stand together, when we refuse to accept that some people simply don't deserve to eat—we win.
🌹 Building power for working people
The Labor Party is an independent political organization dedicated to workers' rights, economic justice, and building a democratic economy that serves everyone. We're not funded by corporations or billionaires—we're funded by working people like you.
This article represents Labor Party policy positions as outlined in our Interim Platform. For more information about our comprehensive platform covering labor rights, housing justice, healthcare access, and economic democracy, visit votelabor.org.
