On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reduced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding by an estimated $186 billion over ten years and restricted eligibility requirements. SNAP provides funding for 41.7 million low-income Americans, allowing them to purchase more nutritious food in grocery stores. These changes were originally set to take effect in Massachusetts on November 1, but the government shutdown, which spanned from October 1 to November 12, prematurely halted the program. Thousands of families relying on SNAP suddenly saw their benefits delayed, reduced, or temporarily suspended weeks earlier than expected, not due to a policy change, but because of a sudden lapse in federal administrative funding. Although payments have resumed, the disruption left many households without a reliable safety net at a time when food insecurity in the state was already on the rise. Local organizations, specifically food pantries, felt the shock first. Although Nobles’ Community Service Afternoon Program is not closely affiliated with any of these groups, EXCEL is.
Outside of the afternoon program, the Nobles EXCEL program supports students by, for example, helping them find volunteer opportunities in their own communities that coincide with their interests. They aim to provide experiences that push students outside their comfort zones and aid them in fostering connections with new communities and the people within them. Outside of the Nobles community, they collaborate with other campus programs to integrate community engagement into their work.
“The demand [for volunteering] is even higher now than it has ever been,” Coordinator of Community Service Tiauna Walker said. She explained that the pressure partner organizations experienced from both SNAP cuts and the shutdown put additional stress on families. The emotional weight of the holiday season made the timing especially difficult. “It’s one thing to already struggle with everyday grocery needs, and then to think about hosting the holidays on top of that, it makes these families’ situations even more challenging,” Walker said.
When the shutdown initially began, Director of EXCEL Laura Neubauer asked Walker to reach out to the Executive Director of the non-profit institution Three Squares New England to gauge potential needs of the organizations within their network. Three Square New England’s mission is to fight against food insecurity, and they achieve this through communication and partnerships with other hunger relief organizations in Massachusetts to raise funds and awareness to combat food insecurity. Executive Director Marena Burnett was kind enough to connect Walker to Dedham Food Panty, and from there she was able to speak with their coordinators to gauge their current needs amidst the SNAP changes. Neubauer said, “Food pantries across the United States were in a state of alarm when SNAP benefits stopped or paused.” She explained that food pantries play three essential roles in the hunger relief system: They provide immediate access to food for families who cannot wait the typical 30-day SNAP approval period, they cover non-SNAP eligible items such as toiletries and hygiene supplies, and they provide backup support when benefits are delayed or suspended, as happened during the shutdown. “When SNAP stopped, all three roles fell on them at once,” Neubauer said. But the situation in Dedham was much more encouraging. While the need was high, local schools, civic groups, and residents responded quickly. Dedham Public Schools conducted a major food drive, and other community organizations also contributed donations. “The Dedham community really stepped up,” Neubauer said.
Because of this townwide effort, Nobles Community Service did not immediately mobilize a major response. Instead, Walker and Neubauer shifted their focus toward understanding how needs might evolve once the early wave of community donations tapered off. Both directors emphasized that, although the pantry was well-stocked at the moment, the effects of the SNAP interruption were still significant and would likely intensify as winter approached.
This was the driving force behind the Friendly Competitive Food Drive announced by the School Life Council (SLC) in late November. The Dedham Food Pantry, after telling Nobles that they would have a surplus of food for Thanksgiving, requested that a drive after the Thanksgiving push would be the most beneficial. Nobles listened to what they needed.
While the Community Service Afternoon Program did not change its partnerships, as they are set at the beginning of each season, and shifting them mid-season would have broken commitments to long-standing organizations, Walker did notice a meaningful shift elsewhere among Nobles students. “As of this year, I have found more volunteers working with pantries and food-insecurity-related work through independent volunteering,” she said. She noted that more people were seeking out ways to help beyond what was required.
Neubauer highlighted that Nobles’ response, both now and in the coming weeks, will be shaped by direct communication with partner organizations rather than assumptions about what they need. Food pantries have suddenly become the sole source of food for many families, and their responsibilities have expanded overnight. The pressure on these organizations spurred the community to respond. “We need to ask partner organizations how they want to be helped, what their needs are, and how we can work in true collaboration with them,” she said. She added that helpful service must be led by the partner organization rather than one’s own assumptions or impulses. Walker and Neubauer underscored that ethical community engagement begins with listening. As Walker put it, the goal is to support partners in the way they identify as most helpful, rather than arriving with predetermined solutions.
As Dedham families continue to recover from both the SNAP cuts and the temporary loss of benefits during the shutdown, the Nobles Community Service department hopes that the upcoming drive will help these families continue through this difficult time. In the weeks ahead, the success of the Friendly Competitive Food will depend on the continued generosity of the school community. Any and all contributions made during this period will help strengthen the Dedham Food Pantry’s capacity to support these families feeling the impact of the SNAP disruption.
