Food Distribution

President Donald Trump's administration is demanding that states reverse full SNAP benefits issued under recent court orders. The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed those rulings, affecting 42 million Americans who rely on the program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's demand follows warnings from over two dozen states about potential "catastrophic operational disruptions" if they aren't reimbursed for benefits authorized before the stay. Nonprofits and Democratic attorneys general had sued to maintain the program, winning favorable rulings last week. Wisconsin, for example, loaded benefits for 700,000 residents but now faces financial strain.

Southwest Florida outlets of a chicken salad restaurant are offering free meals for children until SNAP benefits are restored.

The DeSantis administration is warning nearly 3 million Floridians who rely on federal food assistance that their benefits won’t be available in November due to the federal government shutdown. “If the federal government shutdown continues into November, (supplemental nutrition assistance program) SNAP benefits for the month of November will not be issued until federal funding is restored,” the Florida Department of Children Families (DCF) posted on its webpage.

Hormel Foods Corporation is recalling approximately 4,874,815 pounds of foodservice ready-to-eat frozen chicken products that may be contaminated with pieces of metal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Saturday.

Approximately 2,277,540 pounds of a ready-to-eat Korean barbecue pork jerky product shipped to Costco and Sam's Club sites nationwide that may be contaminated with pieces of metal is being recalled, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced.The affected jerky product made by LSI, Inc., an Alpena, S.D. establishment, has a one-year shelf-life with “best by” dates ranging October 23, 2025, through September 23, 2026, printed on the side of the packaging.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is recommending consumers who purchased certain lots of Great Value raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart stores in 13 states, including Florida, not eat or serve the product and instead throw it away. At issue is possible radioactive contamination of the shrimp due to the containers used.The FDA is actively investigating reports of Cesium-137 (Cs-137) contamination in shipping containers and frozen shrimp products processed by PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati (doing business as BMS Foods) of Indonesia.

Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) locations are being planned in DeSoto, Lee, and Manatee counties. D-SNAP provides food assistance for Florida residents impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton who are not receiving food assistance through the regular Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

Southwest Florida is no exception to what a slew of stories in the past few days have reported about the popular green-capped, red, spicy Huy Fong brand sauce — sirachais difficult to find, expensive when found, and likely not going to be back to former availability for some time.

More than 12.1 million MREs and 43.5 million bottles of water have been distributed so far.

State health officials reported 8,847 new COVID-19 cases, Wednesday for a total of 1,018,160 cases. On Tuesday, Florida became the third state in the U.S., along with Texas and California, to surpass one million total cases.The Florida Department of Health also reported 88 new coronavirus-related deaths, Dec. 2, for a total of 19,012 fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic.