Impact Fund and Co-Counsel File Food Benefits Lawsuit for 42 Million People
Children make up around 40% - or 16 million - of SNAP recipients.
By Lori Rifkin, Litigation Director, Impact Fund
“Food or rent. Food or medicine. Food or transportation. Food for me or food for my children.” Earlier this week, we brought the voices of the 42 million people being denied food benefits to federal court.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP,” formerly known as food stamps) is the most important and effective program we have to fight hunger in the United States. It gives 42 million people in over 22 million households the ability to put food on their tables, keep their children in school, focus on their jobs, and improve the overall health of their families. It also is an economic lifeline for large and small grocery stores in every community.
The Food and Nutrition Act, the statute governing SNAP, requires the government to issue benefits to approved households every month, regardless of what is going on with the federal budget. And for the last sixty years, those benefits have never been interrupted, even during the uncertainty of government shutdowns.
Until now.
For the first time in the program’s history, the federal government has utterly failed to provide SNAP benefits and is wasting valuable time trying to defend the indefensible in multiple courts. The Department of Agriculture and Office of Management and Budget can fund the program, and the law requires them to do so. Yet, they are abandoning low-income families and forcing them to make the hardest choice imaginable: who gets to eat today?
That’s why the Impact Fund and co-counsel Western Center on Law & Poverty filed the class action lawsuit Perrone v. Rollins on November 4, 2025. The case asks the court to recognize the right of participating households to SNAP benefits on time and in full every single month. On November 5, we requested a temporary restraining order and certification of a nationwide class. It’s time to end the cycle of uncertainty, anxiety, and hunger.
For more information, check out our media alert.
Production Credits
Writer: Lori Rifkin
Editors: Teddy Basham-Witherington, John Henry Frankel
Web Producer: John Henry Frankel
Web Editor: Teddy Basham-Witherington