Bay Area food banks and local governments are bracing for a potential surge in hunger if the partial federal government shutdown stretches into November and funding for a key safety net program runs dry.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — also known as food stamps or SNAP — helps about one in eight people in the U.S. pay for groceries, including 5.5 million in California. Anti-poverty advocates say it’s a vital part of the nation’s social safety net. Low-income individuals and families are eligible, and a family of three can receive up to $785 each month to pay for food, plants and seeds at grocery stores and farmers markets. California’s version of the food assistance program is CalFresh.

Those benefits will disappear in November if the ongoing shutdown of the federal government drags through this week.

Last week, White House officials said they would not tap contingency funds to keep food assistance flowing after October, because they are for disaster relief and not legally available to cover regular benefits. Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C. had lobbied the administration of President Donald Trump without success to keep the program running during the shutdown, which reached its 26th day on Monday. The Republican administration has consistently blamed the shutdown on Democrats, who are withholding their votes on a budget agreement to restore Republicans’ cuts to health care spending.

The California Department of Social Services is texting CalFresh recipients with a heads-up about the possible delay, said a spokesperson for Santa Clara County Executive James Williams. County staff are also informing recipients, he added.

The evaporation of food assistance would likely hit the region hard. More than half a million people in the core Bay Area receive CalFresh assistance. That includes 176,000 people in Alameda County — a whopping tenth of the population there — and 133,000 people in Santa Clara County.

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Officials and food bank staff are expecting a surge in hunger, and they’re scrambling to prepare.

In the South Bay, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley distributes food and resources to low-income residents. The nonprofit also helps residents apply for CalFresh benefits. Even before the government shutdown, the food bank served double the number of people it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We know from many years of serving our community that any time safety net services experience cuts, we see more people in our lines,” said spokesperson Diane Baker Hayward. “We, like all the other Bay Area food banks, are getting ready to see more people in our lines.”

How can others help?

“The most important things we need right now are donations,” she said.

State agencies already are stepping in. Gov. Gavin Newsom is expediting the delivery of $80 million in funds for food banks. A spokesperson for the governor blamed Trump and Republicans for “prolonging” the shutdown and “delaying critical SNAP benefits.”

About $3.2 million will flow to Second Harvest, according to the spokesperson. Another $2.4 million will flow to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, plus $2.2 million to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.

County officials are also stepping in to boost funding.

In Alameda County, where a quarter of the population doesn’t have enough to eat and doesn’t know where their next meal will come from, the Board of Supervisors is slated to finalize Tuesday pushing $10 million in funding for local food bank networks. The Alameda County Community Food Bank would receive the bulk, $8.3 million, to buy more food and shore up distribution lines, per the meeting’s agenda. The county would tap funds from Measure W, a 2020 sales tax increase voters approved for homelessness services, and funds would still be available after the shutdown ends.

The Alameda County social services agency is planning to open food distribution sites and deliver food to recipients in a partnership with the food bank “to help mitigate some of the issues around some of the government shutdown and the potential delays in SNAP,” County Supervisor Lena Tam told Bay Area News Group.

Tam noted that Newsom had offered to deploy National Guard troops to assist at food banks. But, like others in the region, Tam said the presence of the National Guard could make immigrants nervous enough to stay away from food banks.

“Because of what happened last week with the ICE surge,” she said, “we don’t want to basically create that fear within the community. So the food bank will not be relying on the National Guard.”

Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C. have continued to trade barbs and blame during the shutdown, which has also left about 250,000 federal employees in California furloughed or working without pay, according to the White House.

The administration blames Democrats, who say they will not agree to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate with them on extending expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say Democrats must first agree to reopen the government before negotiation. Democrats are imploring the Republican administration to continue funding SNAP.

During the shutdown, the Republican president has used the funding lapse to punish Democrats, tried to lay off thousands of federal workers and seized on the vacuum left by Congress to reconfigure the federal budget for his priorities, The Associated Press reported. Already, Trump’s centerpiece “Big, Beautiful Bill” was expected to remove or reduce SNAP benefits for about 4 million Americans, according to a prominent left-leaning think tank.

During a luncheon at the White House with GOP senators this week, Trump introduced his budget director Russ Vought as “Darth Vader” and bragged how he is “cutting Democrat priorities and they’re never going to get them back.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat representing part of San Jose, said the “Trump Administration’s move to possibly withhold benefits to 42 million Americans is a cruel and purely political move.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.