I’m a cook at a church kitchen in Raleigh, North Carolina, providing hot meals to low-income families daily. The government shutdown has made SNAP funding unstable and donations have dropped. One evening a mother held her two-year-old and crouched to ask: “We can still come here tonight, right?” I bowed my head and served her a bowl of soup. I wondered: is this soup a help or a warning? I overheard a volunteer on the headset: “We’re cutting back portions.” The sound of my pots clanging echoed the tension in the room. #WhenSNAPStops #SNAPLife #SNAPInterrupted