Hunger On the Menu
Nearly a million Native kids living away from their Nation's territory risk losing essential meals. SNAP benefits face being cut while a government shutdown continues.
When the food runs out, the first person I think are people like my niece. She’s raising two little ones, my grandchildren, away from our Nation's territory, in a small place a very long walk to a grocery store that already feels too expensive. One just started kindergarten, and other spends quality time with their great-grandmother, my mom. I help when I can. This November it’s the groceries. It ain't much, but it means my family's future will eat.
That’s the story beneath the shutdown headlines. While politicians argue in Washington, the food support that keeps Native families afloat sinks into an abyss. SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is running out of money. For millions of Americans, that’s a crisis. For Native families, especially those living away from their Nations’ lands, it’s something deeper, a continuation of hunger that stretches across generations.
Nearly nine out of ten Native people now live away from their Nations. That’s more than 5.6 million people building lives in cities and small towns, far from the kinship networks that make survival possible back home. About a quarter of that population are children. Here's the math, that’s roughly 1.4 million Indigenous American kids, and close to 950,000 depend on SNAP just to eat.
When those benefits are cut in November, it’s not an abstract problem. It’s a kindergartner eating less. It’s a grandmother splitting a sandwich in half. It’s the quiet worry of people like me trying to figure out what can stretch another week.
“Hunger isn’t just missing a meal. It shadows every homework assignment, every recess game, every bedtime.”
I grew up in the Little Earth of United Tribes Housing Projects in south Minneapolis. Native kids fill public schools and lunchrooms all over the Twin Cities. The cafeterias are where class and policy met in the form of a tray: milk, rectangle slice of pizza and a little fruit. For too many kids, those trays have less every day.
This ain't even a new story. Food has been used against Indigenous people for centuries. Rations withheld while treaties were broken, hunger enforced to gain control. Boarding schools starved great-grandparents and punished their language and culture in the same breath. Today’s SNAP crisis isn’t deliberate in that same way, but it sits in the same historical shadow.
In Salt Lake City, the Urban Indian Center has been delivering emergency food boxes and linking families to local resources. In Chicago, the American Indian Center, has doubled its food distribution days since the shutdown began. Feeding America’s Native partners have mobilized across the country.
“These aren’t just numbers. They’re our neighbors, families and relatives. Nobody should have to prove they deserve to eat.”
I’ve seen it firsthand. When families bring home food that’s been quiet for too long, something shifts. Children’s shoulders relax. Parents breathe easier. It’s not just about nutrition, it’s about being remembered.
Hunger has been written into the history of interactions between Indigenous Nations and settler colonial governments. But this history doesn’t have to stay there. Donating to Native-led food programs, volunteering with local centers, or even asking grocery stores to partner with Indigenous organizations. These are direct acts that reach real people.
And this is the moment to act. Because this time, the story isn’t about waiting for food that may never come. It’s about making sure it does.
If You Want to Help
Donate to Native-led food programs in your city.
Volunteer at an urban Indian center.
Support school meal programs that reach Native children.
Links - Search out similar ways to help in your area.
🔗 Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake – Community Resources (2024)
🔗 American Indian Center of Chicago (2025)
🔗 Feeding America: Native Programs (2024)
Sources
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Minority Health, American Indian and Alaska Native Health, 2023 (HHS link)
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census Data, 2022 (Census link)
Feeding America, Spotlight on Native Americans, 2024 (Feeding America link)
Economic Policy Institute, Cuts to SNAP Will Disproportionately Harm Families of Color and Children, 2024 (EPI link)
National Center for Education Statistics, American Indian and Alaska Native Students in U.S. Public Schools, 2022 (NCES link)
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Native Food Sovereignty and History, 2021 (NMAI link)
Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake, Community Resources, 2024 (UICSL link)
American Indian Center of Chicago, 2025 (AIC link)
USDA, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Data, 2023
Children’s Defense Fund, Hunger Among Native Children in Cities, 2024
National Urban Indian Family Coalition, 2023
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Impact of SNAP Cuts on Children, 2024
Native American Rights Fund, Food Insecurity Reports, 2022
Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kids Count Data on AI/AN Children, 2024
Vincent Moniz (NuÉta) is a longtime writer focused on Indigenous policy, politics and people. His work has appeared on public media platforms and in Indigenous-run newsrooms across Turtle Island.