Mandi Remington is the founding director of Corridor Community Action Network and a Johnson County supervisor. 

There is a line between hard bargaining and cruelty. When a government begins to weaponize basic means of survival, it crosses into dangerous territory. The decision to withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—paired with Congressional plans to slash Medicaid and SNAP funding—isn’t just another partisan fight. It’s a turning point.  

For the first time in SNAP’s 60-year history, families aren’t receiving the benefits they depend on. For many, that means empty refrigerators, skipped meals, and trying to explain to their kids why they can’t buy more food. This is a conscious choice by the Trump administration, as Congress has already appropriated billions of dollars in a contingency fund to cover SNAP during government shutdowns. 

My own family has relied on SNAP. When my oldest child was diagnosed with celiac disease at three years old, we stopped going to free meal programs because there was no way for me to know which foods were safe for her to eat. I couldn’t bring myself to ask volunteers to sort through ingredients or make special accommodations when we were there for help that was supposed to be simple. 

A friend of mine faces the same kind of challenge today. She’s on a medical diet with very specific parameters—the kind of restrictions that make food banks and free meal programs impossible to rely on. SNAP is different. It allows people to buy exactly what they need for their own health and safety—whether that means gluten-free foods, allergy-safe products, or special medical diets. Taking that away puts them in an impossible position.  

As an only parent of children with such diets, I know what it feels like to wonder how long you can stretch what’s left in the cupboard. Now, that insecurity is being wielded as a political tool. This administration is using hunger as a weapon, denying food to our most vulnerable to get its way. A federal judge has ordered that benefits not be withheld, but it’s unclear whether that order will be followed. The pattern of defiance we’ve seen makes that uncertainty all too real.  

History warns us where this path leads. The deliberate manipulation of food—withholding access, weaponizing distribution, engineering famine—is a recognized tactic of repression and atrocity used in Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Ukraine, Mao’s Great Leap, and the current genocide in Palestine.  

This moment calls for more than outrage—it calls for organized, principled response. Protecting access to food and care shouldn’t be a partisan issue.   

So, what do we do about it?   

First, we have to be loud and clear: weaponizing hunger is unacceptable. Our government must ensure food and health benefits are treated as non-negotiable priorities—but we can’t wait for our so-called leaders to do the right thing. Right now, we have to do what’s necessary ourselves.

Build and fill little free pantries and community fridges. Make sandwiches and hand them out. Cook extra portions to take to a neighbor. If there are shelters and/or food banks in your community, make sure they have enough to meet increasing demands. Financial donations tend to go farthest, as nonprofit status and bulk purchasing allow many organizations to stretch pennies farther than any of us can alone. 

 Do what you can to keep people fed. 

And don’t let up on this administration. Call, write, and be incessant. Tell them hunger is not a bargaining chip. Tell them to follow the court order, reinstate SNAP immediately, and stop using food and medical care as weapons in political fights. Because no matter where you stand politically, the measure of a government—and a nation—is how we care for those who need us most. 

community fridge photo provided by Mandi Remington