Luisa S. Deprez is professor emerita of sociology and social policy at the University of Southern Maine. She is a member of the Maine Chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network, which brings together scholars across the country to address public challenges and their policy implications.

Food is a basic human need. Without it, you will die. Yet on Nov. 1, more than 42 million Americans will be at risk of losing supplemental food assistance (SNAP) because of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

With the avid support of congressional Republicans, funding for food and health care was slashed. Their subsequent refusal to safeguard these programs, regardless of the consequences, caused a government shutdown.

They have now halted the distribution of assistance, ordering that the billions of dollars in reserve not be used to finance it. Pushing their share of the cost onto states, the feds are forcing states to either scale back or end their SNAP programs.

Of immediate concern was the estimated 4 million people who will lose all or part of their benefits because of worsening restrictions. That number of casualties will likely rise as at least 25 states plan to cut off all food aid benefits Nov. 1 at the government’s directive.

Nearly 170,000 Mainers will not receive food support — the equivalent of $6.31 per person per day. While it sounds like a very small amount, and it is, it is a lifeline to those who receive it.

The record cuts to SNAP also sharply reduced allocations to food banks. This spring, President Trump canceled 94 million pounds of food to food banks. Mid-Coast Hunger Prevention received 50% less food in April, as did Good Shepherd in Auburn. A struggling food bank in Aroostook County is rumored to close.

These cuts come as the use of food banks is skyrocketing: up 50% in the Brunswick area and 97% in Kittery, 1 in 7 residents in rural Waldo County and more than 1,000 per week in Harrison — population 2,605.

With rising food and gasoline prices, utility costs and fewer job opportunities — coupled with no paychecks caused by the shutdown — more and more people will be hungry and in need of this support than ever before.

These are your neighbors, friends, students, school and day care aides, health and residential care
workers, elders, family members. Thousands of low-income workers who make your life more
comfortable will eat less because of the inhumanity of the Trump administration and its GOP followers.

But for them, this threat to American citizens is of little concern. And we will not know of the increased need, as the administration intentionally stopped issuing USDA reports on hunger in America this spring.

The federal government of the United States and GOP legislators are using one of the oldest weapons of war — withholding access to food. Though he’s positioning himself as a peace-maker abroad, Trump is unleashing a war here at home — on U.S. soil — against millions of children, elders, disabled and homeless people and households unsure of when and where they will get their next meal. Many of them are on the verge of malnutrition.

Food assistance, like many other safety net programs — housing, welfare for families with children, Medicaid/MaineCare, disability benefits — have never been popular with the GOP. The history of their development and evolution has been fraught with controversy and suspicion. The recipients are people who are often seen as society’s cast-offs, forever questioned about everything including their trustworthiness, responsibility, honesty and work ethic.

Yet, food assistance has, since its inception, been shown to lift people out of poverty, boost local economies and ensure better health for those who participate in it. The notion that people wake up in the morning and decide to become needy so they can get SNAP is absurd.

Why does this matter? Well, in a country of riches with apparently insolvable problems, hunger is one of the easier ones to resolve. With proper systemic support coupled with a commitment to keeping Americans well-nourished, people will thrive, as will the U.S. and its economic stability.

A recent report found that for every $1 reduction in SNAP benefits, the loss to the economy ranges from $1.50 to $20. The cost to society for families with children is $14 to $20. Not only will people’s lives be upended; local economies will be devastated.

Trump and his allies are letting people starve to try and shift the shutdown blame from their own cruelty and intransigence to Democrats. They are playing politics with people’s lives and weaponizing hunger for partisan purposes. This weaponization of food is unconscionable and inhumane. One has to wonder what intended outcome is being pursued.

We are now fighting to sustain and secure affordable health care, food, housing and education while the administration gives $40 billion to Argentina, pays out $172 million for two fighter jets for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, increases tax relief to the richest Americans, refurbishes the White House to pretty it up with gold medallions and a ballroom, throws a $45 million military parade for Trump’s birthday … and so on.

But those life-saving things real people need are pushed off the table into the rubbish. The upcoming stoppage requires urgent action on the part of all of us. We must believe that our fellow humans who are in need are worthy of support. And we must act on that belief not only because they deserve it but because the president and GOP legislators don’t care enough to do so.