loading . . . A woman in a tie-dyed sweatshirt holds a cardboard box of food as she stands between two parked cars. Alicia Rogers, 39, holds a food box full of yogurt, peanut butter, crackers, spaghetti, chicken and canned goods that she picked up Friday at the Sunshine Division’s food pantry at 12436 S.E. Stark Street. She was particularly relieved to have the chicken. “I rarely buy meat,” she said.(Aimee Green/The Oregonian)By Aimee Green | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Each month, Portland resident Alicia Rogers spends the entire $191 that the federal government loads onto her SNAP card the same day the money arrives.
“The first shopping trip, it’s gone,” said Rogers, a 39-year-old single mother of two, ages 9 and 15.
But today, Rogers won’t be able to do that, as a lapse in benefits through SNAP — also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — is set to take hold for 757,000 Oregonians amid the federal shutdown. That has left Rogers in enormous angst.
“Nervous,” “worried,” “stressed,” “overwhelmed” and “upset” are all words Rogers uses to describe the possibility that she won’t be able to feed herself and her two children for the entire month. She said the money she earns as a full-time caregiver for a nonprofit simply doesn’t go far enough.
News Friday that two federal judges had ordered the Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits despite the 1-month-old government shutdown still left her uneasy. She’s read that her benefits still could be reduced if there’s not enough federal emergency money to go around. Or it could be delayed for days if the administration appeals.
“Who knows if it’s going to happen,” Rogers said. “It’s kind of up in the air.”
Rogers was one of more than a dozen SNAP recipients Friday that The Oregonian/OregonLive interviewed outside a Southeast Portland food pantry, the nonprofit Sunshine Division, which gives out free groceries to those in need. Staffers at the food pantry said the number of food-insecure Oregonians showing up has grown by the day, especially since federal and state officials announced nearly two weeks ago that federal food money could stop flowing Nov. 1.
Friday, a steady stream of people arrived. They jockeyed for space in the warehouse’s tiny parking lot.
Other people who said they couldn’t afford gas or didn’t own cars arrived by bus or foot. All said the prospect of no money recharged to their SNAP benefit cards was upending their lives. The funds are distributed to recipients on the first through ninth days of each month, depending on the last digit of each person’s Social Security number.
Some visitors to the food pantry swore when asked how they were feeling. Tears welled in the eyes of others. Some looked blankly off into space, saying they had no back-up plans. By 1:30 p.m., a line of a dozen people formed outside the front door. All were adults, except a man with two young children younger than 5.
A man who said he’d eaten nothing that day emerged from the food pantry’s warehouse with two bags of groceries. He immediately set them down and chugged from a carton of juice made of passion fruit, orange and guava, saying it was the first sustenance he’d had all day.
A woman with brown hair pulled back in a pony tail and wearing a navy T-shirt emblazoned with the logo "Sunshine Division" digs her hand into a cardboard box of food that contains apples, onions, flax seed and macaroni and cheese. Priscilla Van Der Rest, food pantry manager at Sunshine Division, arranges food in a box of the Southeast Portland food pantry’s parking lot on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.(Photo by Aimee Green/The Oregonian)
A retired Portland couple, ages 70 and 78, left the building with popcorn, rice, peanut butter, spaghetti, a box of macaroni and cheese and a large tub of cottage cheese. As of Friday, the couple said they had 7 cents left on their SNAP benefits card.
Come Saturday, they said they knew their $340 in monthly benefits wouldn’t be replenished. They said in a normal month, they barely get by. They wondered how long they’d have to go with no help from the federal government.
“We’re so angry at both parties. And we’re Democrats. We’re going to switch to be Independents,” said the man.
“I blame all the politicians, every single one of them,” said the woman, who along with her partner didn’t want to give their names.
The pair said they live off of $2,040 a month in Social Security, and even though they had good jobs — he worked in construction laying floors and she was an optician — they have no savings. With rent consuming 75% of their monthly income, they said, there’s little left for utilities and not enough for food.
“We never go out to dinner,” he said.
“There’s no extras,” she said. “Ice cream (from WinCo) is our splurge.”
Portland resident Lisa Thompson said living with no extras means that she and her 75-year-old mother, who share a home, didn’t have enough to buy her a cake for her birthday last Sunday. Coincidentally, the Sunshine Division food pantry had a black forest cake with whipped cream and cherries on top for the taking during her visit on Friday.
“I’m very grateful,” Thompson said.
She also was thankful for the chicken, bread and other staples that filled a suitcase that she lugged into the trunk of her car with the help of a food pantry worker. Thompson said she can’t work as she recovers from injuries sustained from a man who attacked her. She said she successfully fended him off, but was left with a broken shoulder and large gash to her forehead.
“I can’t work,” Thompson said. “I need my food stamps. I get only $293 a month. We’re barely making it.”
Portlander Jessica Bostick said barely getting by means skipping dinner so her children who live with her, ages 9, 17 and 20, can eat. She said the nearly $390 per month in SNAP benefits that are loaded to her card on the 6th of each month are gone by mid-month.
Bostick said her children heard at school that the federal shutdown would likely mean the family’s SNAP benefits would at least be delayed. They came home and asked her about it.
“My son at night cries,” Bostick said. “He goes, ‘I’m so worried.’”
Thursday night, Bostick said her children ate French toast for dinner — “until we ran out of bread” and they went to bed a little hungry. The box of food she picked up from Sunshine Division on Friday included three loaves of bread.
“Thank God,” she said.
Bostick said she worries that if her SNAP card isn’t recharged by Nov. 6, matters will get far worse. Even with her full benefits in October, she said her refrigerator was empty of any fresh food and mostly filled with condiments or other items that wouldn’t make a full meal.
“It breaks my heart,” Bostick said. “Because kids have to eat no matter what. It’s just really crappy.”
Aimee Green headshot Aimee Green
I've worked for The Oregonian since 2000, covering a wide range of beats, including cities, schools, breaking news, jails, prisons and the criminal and civil justice systems. I currently cover politics and... more
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