By Jorge Casuso

October 31, 2025 -- With funding for the SNAP food assistance program running out on Saturday due to the Federal government shutdown, the Westside Food Bank is "pleading" for donations.

The Santa Monica based organization on Thursday sent out the call as it "braces for a dramatic and immediate surge in demand for food" for the 1.5 million LA County residents who will abruptly lose their benefits.

“We are deeply concerned that our current resources are insufficient to meet this looming crisis,” WSFB President and CEO Genevieve Riutort said in a statement.

“We do not have extra food stockpiled, as we had already been clearing the shelves to meet the recent rise in food insecurity," Riutort said. "We need donations, and we need them now."

WSFB officials said the 44-year-old non-profit needs "immediate additional funding" to place "a large order of grocery gift cards through special programs that restrict gift card purchases to only food."

With Federal funding halted, the gift cards allow the 72,000 households the Food Bank serves "to buy what they need without delay" and "bypass bottlenecks in food procurement and storage."

The cards also allow recipients "to shop for themselves and their families" and temporarily replace SNAP food stamps "with minimal infrastructure needs."

SNAP, which serves more than 42 million people nationwide, about 5.5 million in California, provides an average of $187.20 per household each month to pay for groceries.

As the government shutdown enters its second month on November 1, half of the nation's State governments are providing funds to keep the program going until a funding deal is struck.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on October 22 he is "fast-tracking upwards of $80 million in state support ahead of funding delays triggered by the shutdown."

Newsom also announced he will deploy the California National Guard under his command and the State office California Volunteers "on a humanitarian mission to support food banks."

On Tuesday, Newsom announced that California, along with 20 other States filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts to force the Trump administration to continue providing SNAP cards during the shutdown.

The lawsuit argues that Congress appropriated $6 billion in contingency funds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for SNAP through September 2026.

USDA issued a memo this week, saying the money "is a source of funds for contingencies, such as the Disaster SNAP program, which provides food purchasing benefits for individuals in disaster areas."

President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)," signed into law July 4, transfers more of the program's administrative and financial responsibility from the Federal government to the States but does not cut the benefit amounts.

It also makes major changes to SNAP, including expanding work requirements for able-bodied adults under 65 and excluding from the program those who are residing in the U.S. illegally.

For more information about the Westside Food Bank click here