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Letitia James visits Brooklyn soup kitchen as SNAP delays drag on
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Nov 3, 2025
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Giulia Heyward/Gothamist
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Nov 3, 2025
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New York Attorney General Letitia James visited a Brooklyn soup kitchen on Monday to highlight the effects of delayed SNAP benefits during the federal government shutdown.
She stopped by the Christian Fellowship Seventh-Day Adventist Church in East Flatbush, just days after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must use emergency funds to keep the program going this month. James had joined other state attorneys general in suing over the funding freeze.
While the court order ensures some aid will resume, the Trump administration said it will only issue partial payments and it remains unclear when those will arrive or how much families will receive. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
James spoke with people waiting in line for donated meals as they entered the church and left with plastic bags of food.
“We’ve been traveling all throughout the city and parts of upstate and what I've seen are lines of women, men and children, all standing in line for food,” she said. “And the problem, unfortunately, has only gotten worse.”
The fight over food assistance has left people like Ali McKinnon, who was waiting in line at the soup kitchen on Monday, concerned for months.
“It’s going to start chaos,” McKinnon said. “And if people ain't got nowhere to leave, and they can’t eat, it’s going to start chaos. And we don’t need that right now.”
McKinnon, who lives in a shelter, hasn’t been able to qualify for SNAP, so he relies on food banks — and he said he anticipates that lines will only get longer as more people turn to other methods of getting food.
“The Democrats and Republicans must come to a solution because you’re harming other people,” he continued. “They’re already wealthy or rich. But poor people? We ain't got nothing. We depend on this for our livelihood.”
Raymond Cuevas spoke to a Gothamist reporter as he exited the church that evening with a bag of food.
He’s been relying on SNAP benefits after taking off from work as a truck driver following a cancer diagnosis.
He now has no choice but to get back to work if he wants to continue to eat. But he said he’s more worried about how the White House’s actions are affecting low-income families with children.
“People are deciding between insurance for their car or food for their kids,” Cuevas said. “God is watching.”
James was joined by Congressmember Yvette Clarke and Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman. Clarke said the federal shutdown “will cost people their lives.”
“It is stunning to see how far they’ll drag their feet when they have the chance to stop Americans from literally going hungry,” she said.
The USDA, which administers SNAP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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brooklyn
Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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