SNAP Benefits Hung in Limbo for Weeks. It Was a Peek at Life Under Long

She’d been waiting for over an hour and Trozalla Smith was still nowhere near the front of the line.

Outside the East Oakland Collective’s food pantry, the mass of people stretched half a block in either direction around her. Women with babies strapped to their backs shifted their weight from one foot to another, bored kids sat on the sidewalk, and elderly men stood stiffly in place as they waited to pick up whatever was left of that week’s offerings — fresh produce, instant ramen, milk and, if they were lucky, eggs and meat.

It was the end of October, and food pantries were absorbing the shock of around 5.5 million Californians anticipating delays to their federal food benefits amid the government shutdown. Unsure of the status of her aid, Smith, 24, was relying entirely on pantries