For 43 days in 2025, 42 million lower-income families, including children and elderly, wondered where their next meals would come from. The nation’s largest anti-hunger program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), was canceled during the fall’s government shutdown, the first time these benefits have ever been paused since it was implemented in 1964. But new SNAP guidelines expand the requirements of who needs to work to prove their eligibility, like veterans, the homeless, and adults ages 54 to 65, all of whom were previously exempt. Mandatory 20-hour weekly work requirements will also disproportionately impact people who work in fields that have been hit hard by unemployment as well as caregivers and the disabled. Social scientists in the food security space say the stricter requirements will cause greater food insecurity, take money out of neighborhoods, and force state governments to figure out how to bear the costs while keeping their own budgets trimmed.…