Ryan Rasmussen is an Oshkosh native who has spent his career in the food and beverage hospitality industry. He had always wanted to work for a nonprofit but was not able to find the right opportunity up until 2021. 

That year, he began to work with the Oshkosh Area Community Pantry (OACP), where he was able to give back to his friends, neighbors and the community. 

When Rasmussen got to know that the government shutdown was happening, he immediately began thinking of ways to help more people in need who will be affected by the pause in food assistance programs. 

“We had to chart a path about trying to figure out what it is that we could try to do to prepare for what we assume to be an even greater influx of folks having to utilize pantries,” he said.

In September, Congress was unable to pass the appropriations bill to fund federal operations for the 2026 fiscal year, leading to a delay in pay for government employees and delays in federally funded programs. Among the areas affected by the government shutdown is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food assistance to nearly 42 million people per month. 

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), SNAP is administered under the name FoodShare in Wisconsin, serving approximately 700,000 people in 2024. 

Rasmussen, who is currently working as an executive director of OACP, recalls the day when the government shutdown happened as “a lot of uncertainty.” He said that in the last four years, the OACP has seen a 50% increase in the total number of guests that they are serving.

“When I first got here, we were averaging about 1,300 families a month,” Rasmussen said. “Today, we are sitting at 2,800 families a month and we are consistently registering, on average, about 100 new families each month.”

Rasmussen said that among the things that were done once the shutdown happened, the first was to figure out how to manage the demand if it got higher because of the SNAP delay.

“We really started to try to path how could we work with our partners and our funders to make sure that we had not only the food we could support, but we really then took a look at some of our hours of operation,” he said. “We ended up adding two additional shopping days this month for folks … if they were being directly affected by SNAP delays.”

When Rasmussen meets visitors at the OACP, he said that most of them are upset about the SNAP pause from the federal government. Rasmussen said that these people might be feeling nervous about the situation they are in. 

“I think they are nervous about not only this month, about what happened in November, but what could happen in the future,” he said. 

Rasmussen said that some conversations in the U.S. about those people who are on the SNAP program range from ideas that these people “don’t deserve it” or “they should get a job.”

“Most of the folks around this program are seniors,” he said. “Most of the folks … have a job. Most of the folks have … families and kids and they are not just making enough in their jobs to be able to support their families’ expenses with … the cost of everything else being high.”

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank that analyzes federal and state budget policies, around 27 million people who are on SNAP are children, adults over 60 and people with disabilities. In 2021, 86% of households with a non-disabled, working-age adult who reported receiving SNAP had earnings that year. The analysis states that those adults often receive low pay or have unstable hours that cause income volatility. 

Rasmussen said that the government’s communication on the pause in food assistance has created confusion in communities. 

“Having communication coming from multiple different sources has created a lot of confusion,” he said. “It really has increased our call volume in people just asking questions about not only SNAP benefits, but whether or not folks could qualify for us.”

John McConnell, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, ordered the U.S. administration on Nov. 6 to fully fund SNAP benefits for that month. The lower-court decision was temporarily blocked after the U.S. administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal the decision. 

The same day McConnell ruled in favor of SNAP, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers announced that around 700,000 Wisconsinites would receive their payments under the FoodShare “as quickly as possible.” On Nov. 8, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a memo to all states to “immediately undo” issued SNAP benefits for November, with Evers responding “No” to the note. 

The First Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s request to halt the decision to fully fund the program because the district court properly ruled that “the overwhelming evidence of widespread harm” outweighs “the potential monetary harm to the government.”

Rasmussen said he is hopeful that in a couple of days, the government will be working and everything will be “back to normal.” 

“Being able to get the government back open, get SNAP funding back open and … kind of normalizing what the process is, is really, really important,” he said. “There is a lot of nervousness for folks that are dealing with a lot of things … that are creating additional burdens for people that have to, you know, stretch their dollars.”

Rasmussen said Oshkosh’s 54th District representative Lori Palmeri, 55th District representative Nate Gustafson, State Senator Kristin Dassler-Alfheim, representing District 18, and other Oshkosh local representatives volunteered at the pantry during open hours last weekend. 

“It was great to see that bipartisan feeling kind of back in this pantry,” he said. 

Rasmussen said that one of the nice things about the Oshkosh community is that people are always ready to help when someone needs help. 

“There was some federal funding that was cut, which was called LFPA (Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Program),” he said. “(The impact) was about $120,000 with a produce that we weren’t going to get this summer.”

Rasmussen said that after working with local farmers, private donors, funders that OACP works with and getting the community involved, they were able to mitigate the cuts. 

“We were able to fundraise 70,000 of that (120,000) back that we could use to purchase produce this summer,” he said. “This community will always respond and help.”

Palmeri said that people who are affected by the government shutdown should reach out to their representatives. 

“I would encourage anyone who is impacted by this delay in benefits to reach out to our federal representatives to detail the real life impact this shutdown is having on you or your family,” she said.

According to Palmeri’s office, DHS’s legal team is monitoring the situation and will continue to keep recipients updated on any changes.

The current government shutdown is the longest in U.S. history, marking 41 days on Nov. 11, breaking the previous record of 35 days in December 2018. On Monday, Nov. 10, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would fund the government through Jan. 30, 2026. According to ABC News, the House of Representatives could vote on the legislation as early as Wednesday, Nov. 12. 

The Advance-Titan called Glenn Grothman’s office in D.C., the representative of the Wisconsin 6th District, regarding the government shutdown and SNAP delays. The office initially responded to the phone call, but after referring to a different person, there was no further communication.