Aurora Beacon-News: Reps. Bill Foster, Lauren Underwood, local officials criticize SNAP uncertainty

Tina Ruiz has been turning more to food pantries to provide food for her family recently. The 58-year-old Kane County resident is currently without access to SNAP.

She is eating more soup these days.

“Ramen noodles, things like that,” she said. “Things that the pantry gives us.”

Amid funding uncertainty and eligibility changes for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, a number of area elected officials and food pantry leaders spoke on Friday at the Northern Illinois Food Bank about their concerns over food insecurity in the area.

The discussion comes on the day President Donald Trump’s administration was ordered to distribute November’s full monthly SNAP benefits amid the U.S. government shutdown.

The Trump administration has since asked a federal appeals court to block the judge’s order.

SNAP provides food assistance to low-income individuals across the country. Illinois typically administers roughly $350 million in federal food aid monthly to about 1.9 million people statewide, according to past reporting.

Now, food pantries across Chicago and its surrounding suburbs have been scrambling to prepare for the potential food emergency.

In Kane County, almost 61,000 residents receive SNAP benefits, Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog said at Friday’s discussion with local leaders. She pointed to groups like low-income families, immigrants, seniors and veterans as groups that may be particularly affected.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, called the threats to SNAP “probably one of the most cruel and tragic results of having an administration that does not believe that you have to follow the law, or follow the courts or follow the Constitution.”

And, on Friday, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, called the program “one of the most effective tools that we have to reduce hunger, to stabilize families and to support our local economies.”

Underwood also cited modifications to the SNAP program made as part of the federal megabill signed into law in July 4 that mandates participants in the program work until 65.

She likewise pointed to legislation introduced Friday, called the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025, of which Underwood said she was a co-sponsor.

At the state level, Illinois State Senator Linda Holmes said they feel “incredibly helpless,” and that it was “never intended that our government — our state government — would be in place in order to try and compel the federal government to follow the law and obey judges’ orders.”

Illinois is one of 25 states that in late October filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the suspension of SNAP benefits.

Holmes also pointed to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s recent executive order directing $20 million toward food banks across the state in response to the uncertainty surrounding SNAP.

“We know we need to get behind our food banks, our food pantries at this time to help them bridge that gap,” State Rep. Anna Moeller added. “But we know it’s not going to be enough.”

Julie Yurko, the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s president and CEO, said that they are seeing 26% more people coming to local food pantries in the first week of November as compared to the first week of last month.

“We cannot fill the gap,” she said, “but we are doing everything we can.”

Ruiz, the Kane County resident, explained that she works part-time as a caregiver, and has a husband that is disabled.

“I’m starting to, you know, feel the stress now,” Ruiz said. She’s concerned about falling behind on her bills.

Aurora-area food pantries have recently been ramping up their delivery and take-home services, as SNAP uncertainty continues, and as fears surrounding federal immigration enforcement keep some people at home.

At East Aurora School District 131, Superintendent Robert Halverson said at Friday’s event that federal immigration fears, as well as food uncertainty, are factoring into demand for food distribution.

Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry in Aurora distributes food to East Aurora students weekly, and Halverson said they recently started giving out emergency food boxes to students. But he described the impact recent federal immigration enforcement activity on district property is having, saying it’s “not fair for our children,” and encouraged continued advocacy against these activities in the community.