Joseph, sold into slavery by jealous brothers, rises to become Pharaoh’s right hand. God reveals in a dream that seven years of abundance will be followed by seven years of famine.

So Joseph does what faithful stewardship demands: he opens the granaries during plenty and fills them “like the sand of the sea” (Genesis 41:49, NRSV). When hunger comes, he opens them again.

Here’s what we’re witnessing in October 2025: Caesar has the granaries. Caesar knows the hunger is coming—hell, Caesar manufactured the hunger through a government shutdown now stretching into its fourth week.

And Caesar, with $6 billion in SNAP contingency funds sitting in reserve and the legal authority to transfer additional resources, has chosen to keep the storehouses closed.

Forty-two million people—one in eight Americans, including 16 million children, 8 million seniors, and 4 million people with disabilities—are staring down Nov. 1 with dread.

This isn’t a failure of resources. This is a policy choice to let people go hungry. CBS NewsCenter on Budget and Policy Priorities

This is sin in action. And beloved, we need to name it as such.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a letter to state agencies on October 10 stating that if the government shutdown continues, there will be “insufficient funds” to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals. CBS NewsCNN

Let that number sit with you. We’re talking about more people than live in the entire state of California facing food insecurity because of political gamesmanship.

Oklahoma has already announced that SNAP benefits will be suspended beginning November 1, 2025, affecting more than 684,600 Oklahomans. Oklahoma.gov

Pennsylvania stopped issuing new SNAP benefits starting October 16. CBS News Texas has warned that November benefits won’t be issued if the shutdown continues past October 27. NBC News

New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Nevada, North Dakota, and Wisconsin have issued similar warnings. Wisconsin even told recipients that their remaining October funds might not carry over into November. NBC News

Here’s the journalistic reality: SNAP requires approximately $8 billion in benefits per month. The USDA has $6 billion in multi-year contingency funds available—money that federal law says “shall be placed in reserve for use only in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations.” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Additionally, the Secretary of Agriculture has discretionary authority to transfer funds among USDA nutrition programs, the same authority used earlier this month to transfer $300 million to WIC to prevent disruption. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Legal experts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities have made it clear: the administration is legally required to use these contingency funds to pay for November SNAP benefits. CBS NewsCenter on Budget and Policy Priorities

During the 2018-2019 shutdown under this same president’s first administration, USDA acted to prevent benefit disruptions. This time? Silence. Inaction. Manufactured crisis.

Each month, the federal government typically pays $8 billion in SNAP benefits, money that flows through more than 250,000 food retailers and stabilizes local economies. NPR

When you cut SNAP, you don’t just hurt families—you destabilize entire communities. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan organization representing mayors in over 1,000 cities, has called on Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to use “all available resources, including the SNAP contingency fund” to prevent benefit delays. CNBC

But here’s where the cruelty compounds: new work requirements tied to SNAP benefits are also going into effect on Nov. 1—the same day benefits might end. These work requirements, passed by Congressional Republicans earlier this year, are expected to push 2.4 million people off the program over the next decade. NPR

According to the Urban Institute, recent and upcoming cuts to SNAP will cause 22.3 million families to lose some or all of their benefits. CNBC

This is systemic violence. It’s not just withholding food—it’s punishing poverty itself. As Gina Plata-Nino, acting director of SNAP at the Food Research & Action Center, notes: “I’m worried about 16 million kids going home after school or being at home with their caregiver, and there’s no lunch and there’s no dinner.” NBC News

Let’s return to Joseph for a moment, because this story matters. When famine came to Egypt and the surrounding lands, Genesis 41:55-57 tells us: “When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.’ When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians.”

Joseph opened the storehouses. Even though Egypt wasn’t obligated to feed the world, even though other nations came begging, even though it would have been easier to hoard, Joseph opened them. Because when you have grain and your neighbor is starving, no theology justifies keeping the doors locked.

But in 2025, America has inverted this story. We have the grain. We have the legal mandate. We have the moral imperative. And we’re watching an administration choose—actively choose—to let the granaries stay closed while blaming the other party for the famine they manufactured.

This is what James Baldwin meant when he said, “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.” The Trump administration claims to care about families, about children, about the vulnerable.

But when 42 million people are staring down hunger, when you have billions in contingency funds sitting unused, when you have the legal authority to act, your silence is a sermon. Your inaction is a doctrine. And the god you’re preaching is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Let me be crystal clear about the theology here: manufactured scarcity is idolatry. When you withhold resources not because they don’t exist but because you’re playing political games, you’re worshiping power instead of practicing mercy. You’re making a golden calf out of budgetary brinkmanship while children go to bed hungry.

Womanist theologian Emilie Townes teaches us to look for the “fantastic hegemonic imagination”—the systems that create suffering and then make us believe it’s natural, inevitable, or someone else’s fault.

Friends, there is nothing natural about a government shutdown. There is nothing inevitable about SNAP benefits disappearing. This is manufactured, intentional, and rooted in a political calculus that treats Black, brown, poor, disabled, and marginalized bodies as expendable.

The prophetic tradition demands we name this for what it is: an abomination. Amos cried out against those “who trample on the needy and bring to ruin the poor of the land” (Amos 8:4). Isaiah condemned those who “turn aside the needy from justice” (Isaiah 10:2). Jesus himself said, “I was hungry and you gave me no food” (Matthew 25:42).

Every day this shutdown continues without releasing SNAP funds is a day of state-sanctioned hunger. Every political calculation that weighs optics over empty stomachs is an altar to Molech. Every press conference that blames the other party while children ration their last groceries is a repudiation of the gospel.

But here’s the hope: we don’t worship Caesar. We worship the God who multiplies loaves and fishes, who calls us to open our hands and our hearts, who reminds us that when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and welcome the stranger, we encounter the divine.

The government may close the granaries, but the Body of Christ can still feed people. Mutual aid networks are already mobilizing. Food banks are preparing. Community organizations are stepping up.

This is resurrection work in real time.

Here’s what you can do right now:

Call your Senators and Representatives (Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121). Demand they end the shutdown immediately and ensure November SNAP benefits are funded. Script: “I’m calling to demand you vote to reopen the government and release SNAP contingency funds. Forty-two million Americans cannot wait for your political games to end. This is a moral emergency.”

Contact Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins: https://www.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/contact-us. Demand that she use her legal authority to release contingency funds and transfer resources to fund November SNAP benefits fully.

Support local food banks and mutual aid networks. Many nonprofits rely on federal grant aid that is now delayed, and they’re facing their own shortfalls. CNBC

Find your local food bank at Feeding America and give what you can.

Share this information widely. Many SNAP recipients don’t know their benefits are at risk. Spread the word through your faith communities, social networks, and organizing spaces.

God of abundance, God of Joseph and Pharaoh, God of loaves and fishes—

We stand in the prophetic tradition that refuses to let Caesar’s cruelty have the last word. We will not normalize manufactured hunger. We will not accept that scarcity is inevitable when the granaries are full. We will not be silent while 42 million of our siblings face an empty November.

Give us the courage to open what Caesar has closed. Give us the creativity to feed each other when the empire refuses. Give us the stubborn, resurrection hope that insists another world is not just possible—it’s already breaking through wherever your people share bread.

May we be the hands that open the storehouses. May we be the voices that refuse to let this stand. May we be the beloved community that feeds each other when Caesar says starve.

Amen, ashe, and let it be so.

Politically Pastoral is a daily newsletter exploring the intersection of faith, justice, and public theology. If this work resonates, share it widely. Support mutual aid networks in your community. And whatever you do—don’t let them normalize this cruelty.