As the 2025 federal government shutdown approaches its second month, federal government workers and SNAP recipients are struggling to make ends meet, especially now that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed a disruption in benefits disbursements for November.
That’s why Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Patricia Stamper has issued what she considers a simple request of local officials: mandate and coordinate the donation of food from groceries receiving District subsidies to furloughed workers and D.C. residents.
“These resources and the extra food and the access should be given to organizations like Peace Lutheran [Church], Liberty Mission Seventh-day Adventist Church, and [New] Morning Star [Baptist Church] so they can continue that work,” said Stamper, commissioner of Single-Member District 7C06, which includes the Deanwood community in Northeast.
On Sunday, Stamper circulated a citywide emergency resolution calling on publicly subsidized District grocers to donate, not discard, extra edible food at a time when thousands of families aren’t expecting to receive their monthly food benefits.
The resolution, which focuses on food with three-to-four days of shelf life, also calls on the D.C. Council and Executive Office of the Mayor to legislate activity between DC Health, D.C. Department of Public Works and other agencies toward this effort. If taken on and approved by the D.C. Council, Stamper’s emergency citywide resolution will advance the District’s zero waste goals while addressing the realities of a federal government shutdown that seems to have no end in sight.
For Stamper, the council and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s creation of an emergency food distribution system is a matter of political will, not capacity.
”We need to be more intentional with our approach as a city,” Stamper told The Informer. ”We can’t just kind of sit back and say, ‘Oh, well, they’ll figure it out,’ but I know there’s so many other things that are at the forefront right now that maybe they just haven’t gotten to it yet.”
Since circulating her resolution, Stamper has spoken with Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember Wendell Felder’s office. She’s also engaged her ANC 7C colleagues, who she’s scheduled to meet with in November during ANC 7C’s monthly meeting.
A staffer in Felder’s office told The Informer that the council member’s legislative director is still currently reviewing Stamper’s resolution.
Though Stamper appeared hopeful about the response from Felder’s office, she acknowledged the work ahead to get the majority of the council’s support for the emergency resolution.
“They’ve done a lot of things lately from the council on an emergency basis, so I know they can do things where they want to in the environment there,” Stamper said. “However, we as people, as residents of D.C., must demand more from our council. I’ve watched other organizations…go down there and demand things of the council, and they say ‘yay’ or ‘nay,’ so I expect a response.”
A Deep Dive: SNAP Benefits, Perturbed Contractors, and Ongoing Support for Job Seekers
The federal government shutdown, which started on Oct. 1, represents a continuation of the stalemate between congressional Democrats and Republicans that started earlier this year over the extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits. Shortly after the Bowser administration celebrated the launch of Cedar Hill Regional Medical Medical Center GW Health, Democrats, much to the chagrin of advocates and allies, supported a stopgap measure that only postponed the inevitable.
Four weeks after discussions about the ACA tax credits fell apart, there appears to be no alternative outcome in sight for the more than 230,000 families across the D.C. metropolitan area dependent on SNAP funds. Despite House Speaker Mike Johnson’s assertions, Republicans have yet to present a plan to preserve health care affordability. In fact, many party leaders— including President Donald J. Trump— refuse to negotiate the matter, saying they’ll consider extending the tax credits if Democrats vote to reopen the government.
On Monday, Johnson doubled down on his opposition to ACA tax credit extensions, all while alluding to “a long list of ideas” the GOP is exploring to address health care costs.
“The expiring Obamacare subsidy at the end of the year is a serious problem,” Johnson told reporters. “If you look at it objectively, you know that it is subsidizing bad policy. We’re throwing good money at a bad, broken system, and so it needs real reforms.”
Earlier this year, D.C. residents caught a sneak peek of what to expect with a Republican-controlled Congress and second Trump administration, when congressional Republicans advanced a continuing resolution that froze $1.1 billion of the District’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
That continuing resolution followed a Department of Government Efficiency-induced federal government furlough earlier this year that not only decimated the District’s projected tax revenue and local restaurant industry, but created hurdles for federal government employees and contractors— including D.C.-area business owner Terry Speigner.
Last weekend, Speigner, owner, president and CEO of the award-winning information technology service provider NGEN, received an award from the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland during an annual gala that took place at Live Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Maryland. The excitement from that moment however, quickly wore off, as Speigner and other government contractors haven’t received any indication that the federal government will reopen anytime soon.
“Directly, the shutdown affects the work that we are doing for federal government agencies which makes up a portion of the work that we perform through our contracts,” Speigner told The Informer. “Indirectly, the shutdown influences the government contractors that we hire to do the work because they don’t get paid while they are not working.”
As Speigner explained, not even a changing of the tide could relieve federal workers.
“Even when the federal government re-opens,” he said, “the contractors do not get back pay for the time missed.”
Throughout much of this year, the Bowser administration has responded to federal government developments by focusing on sports, entertainment and technology as long-term investments. As federal government employees continue to reel from unemployment and shrinking bank accounts, members of the Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives (MOWPI) are also hosting programming for women of color, and particularly Black women, who’ve accounted for a significant portion of job losses during the second Trump administration.
Natasha Dupee, MOWPI director, told The Informer that the goal lies in connecting District residents to homegrown employment and enrichment opportunities— including with the D.C. Infrastructure Academy and apprenticeship programs offered by D.C. Department of Employment Services.
“We are actively recruiting to fill all of our full time and seasonal roles, as well as hosting pre-bidder conferences to roll out grant opportunities, so that we can both meet the need for employment and support the entrepreneurial endeavors that exist in the city,” Dupee said. “The District is doing our part with our grants and our employment opportunities, and the mayor is calling on private industries and community leaders to do what they can to answer the demands of the moment.”
During the earlier part of October, MOWPI conducted its “Women Worksmart Wage Negotiation Training” at Dorothy I. Height/Benning Neighborhood Library in Northeast. The two-hour event, hosted in collaboration with the American Association of University Women and the Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizens Affairs, provided a platform for women to speak about their job search journey and sharpen tricks of the trade used while on the hunt.
Dupee said the wage negotiation programming counts among the latest iterations of advocacy for women of color. Earlier this year, MOWPI hosted similar wage negotiation events with the Council of 100 Black Women and the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs.
“Attendees at the workshop are grateful that there is a place that they can go to give them, not only a tool for the wage negotiation, but also access to District programming that could support them in their next step,” Dupee told The Informer as she spoke about the Oct. 8 workshop. “When residents come to the MOWPI programming for the wage negotiation, they know they’re going to get a specific set of skills or tools and they’re going to get connected to additional opportunities.”
A Partnership That Hints at the Road Ahead
Tonia Wellons, president and CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation (GWCF) spoke of the need to continue leveraging communal support for federal workers and D.C. residents alike.
“Even though the federal government has allowed people to manage a really good quality of life in this region, it is also one of the highest cost regions in the entire United States of America,” Wellons told The Informer. “So people ask, ‘Why [weren’t] more federal government workers ready? Why aren’t more military families ready?’ Because…the strength of your lifestyle is based on a regular, steady salary, and once that is pulled, people fall into hardship, very, very quickly.”
For Wellons, shifting the status quo includes encouraging a “far more diverse” economic outlook in the region, especially for the Black women and men affected in the wake of stripped resources and cuts to essential services and programs.
“I think we would be remiss if we did not mention the disproportionate impact on Black families,” the CEO said. “All of the cuts, all the challenges, and all of the rising costs, including the cost of basic goods…it’s putting a lot of pressure on people. So much so that families are considering leaving the region [to go to] lower cost areas, or areas where the job market is not as reliant on the federal government.”
During the first week of the federal government shutdown, GWCF teamed up with Bowser and other community-based organizations to launch Talent Capital, a web platform offering displaced workers free AI-driven job matching, training, reskilling, and support alongside human-centered partners.
Wellons also touted the collective mission of Greater Washington Together, a new civic alliance of D.C. metropolitan area leaders representing philanthropy, business, government, research institutions and nonprofits. Areas of focus include: investing in grassroots organizations that serve affected communities and champion local autonomy; strategizing industry opportunities to eliminate over-reliance on the federal government; establishing resources and partnerships to help guide decision-making through access to data, regional trends and other key information; and pooling funds for nonprofits via the Community Resilience Initiative.
“This is such a vibrant region because people come here looking to change the world, and then they end up falling in love with D.C., with Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, and Arlington, Alexandria,” Wellons told The Informer. “We would love to see as many opportunities created and made available, prioritizing displaced workers who have been impacted by the shifts in federal policy.”
In an effort to boost community morale, Wellons encouraged D.C. residents to lean into community upliftment and resilience, with a pulse on the core rights “to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“We can’t move away from those values. This is the time to lean into them,” she continued. “If you have the resources, don’t wait until the holiday season to make them available. Our nonprofit community, our community-based organizations are ready to receive them now to be able to respond to this immediate demand.”
With this government shutdown approaching lengths like what Americans saw during the first Trump presidency, Wellons said that constituents of various incomes and backgrounds are in this for the long haul.
“There’s a longer road ahead,” she told The Informer, “and we need to do whatever we can right now to prepare for it.”