Native America Calling: SNAP running out and Alaska traditional relief foods

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Native America Calling: SNAP running out and Alaska traditional relief foods

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

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The Menu: SNAP runs out, Alaska traditional relief foods

Federal food assistance is set to stop November 1 if lawmakers are unable to solve the government shutdown.

That means the supply of food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to low-income Native Americans will begin running out without help from alternative sources. Some tribes are putting funds and other efforts toward filling the sudden gap. At least one tribe is culling their own buffalo herds to provide meat for hungry citizens.

Tune in to get an overview of the situation for Native residents who rely on SNAP.

Also, hear about the lengths to which Alaska Native organizations are working to provide traditional foods to the people displaced by major storms on the state’s west coast.

“Bottom line, the well has run dry,” reads the website for the Department of Agriculture, confirming that funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program runs out on November 1, 2025. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Guests on Native America Calling

Carly Griffith-Hotvedt (Cherokee), executive director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law

Lyle Rutherford (Blackfeet), council member for Blackfeet Nation, headquartered in Montana

Kelsey Ciugun Wallace (Yup’ik and Irish), president and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alaska