When SNAP payments stopped, a fast-moving nonprofit program rushed in with $12 million—and kept families fed

Finances already looked tight for Jade Grant and her three children as she entered the year’s final months.

“Everyone’s birthday is back-to-back,” the 32-year-old certified nursing assistant said. “You have holidays coming up. You have Thanksgiving. Everything is right there. And then, boom. No (food) stamps.”

Grant is among the nearly 42 million lower-income Americans who get help buying groceries from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. When the federal shutdown began in October...