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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina’s law enforcement leaders are warning officials across the Palmetto State to exercise “situational awareness” surrounding the likely suspension of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) – also known as “food stamps.”
The anticipated suspension of these benefits – which would ordinarily be doled out on November 1, 2025 – is a result of the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government in Washington, D.C. An interruption of benefits is expected to cause “heightened tension” across the state, according to an information bulletin published this week by the South Carolina Fusion Center (SCFC).
Could that heightened tension escalate into violence? State law enforcement leaders and their federal partners are monitoring the situation closely in the event that happens…
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The SCFC is a collaborative, information-sharing entity operating under the auspices of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The center “utilizes the expertise and resources of local, state, federal and private sector security and intelligence professionals to provide intelligence-specific and analytically-driven products to all segments of law enforcement personnel, first responders, citizens, businesses, and critical infrastructure in South Carolina with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend and respond to criminal and terrorist activity,” according to SLED’s website.
Per the latest update, the center “has been made aware of SNAP recipients nationwide expressing their frustration on social media platforms including TikTok.”
“(The center) is aware of TikTok videos circulating the internet with some users claiming that they will go to Walmart and other chain grocery stores and leave with food without paying,” the bulletin noted.
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Vive le marché libre… https://t.co/JS7K5cJCsF
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) October 22, 2025
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As of this Wednesday (October 29, 2025), SCFC leaders were “not aware of any individuals in South Carolina who are planning” such activity, however “there may be chatter in private forums.”
According to the latest data (.pdf) from the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) – the agency which administers SNAP benefits in South Carolina – 266,350 households comprising 556,359 individuals received SNAP benefits during the month of September 2025, at a total cost to taxpayers of $103.8 million.
That’s an average payout of $389.73 per household.
Worth pointing out: SNAP funds flow directly from the federal government to a third-party processor responsible for handling individual Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) accounts. SCDSS does not handle SNAP money or receive a direct fund transfer from the federal government – which is one reason this budget line item was controversially taken off the state’s books several years ago.
During the state fiscal year which concluded on June 30, 2025, SNAP benefits in South Carolina totaled $1.36 billion, per SCDSS data (.pdf).
Nationally, SNAP provided benefits to a whopping 41.7 million people per month, on average, during the 2024 federal fiscal year – costing taxpayers nearly $100 billion, according to federal data. That’s 12.3% of the population.
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RELATED | SCHUMER SHUTDOWN
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According to a statement posted to the SNAP website, the onus for the suspension of benefits falls squarely on Democrats in the U.S. Senate (in particular, the chamber’s minority leader Chuck Schumer).
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),” the statement advised. “Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
SNAP benefits for the month of November are projected to cost $9 billion, according to the administration of Donald Trump. Senate Republicans have urged Schumer and the Democrats to agree to a continuing resolution to end the shutdown and allow the government to reopen.
“Democrats have spent a month playing with people’s livelihoods because the far-left wing of their party won’t let them accept a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution,” the chamber’s GOP majority leader, John Thune, wrote on X. “If they want to prevent damage from their shutdown, then they can end their shutdown. The bill is right there at the desk.”
Keep it tuned to FITSNews as we track developments on multiple fronts related to this story… and continue doing our best to hold those in power accountable for the total lack of sustainability of federal spending.
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THE BULLETIN…
(Fusion Center)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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7 comments
Is she the poster child for Entitlement? Why don’t she get off her sorry big Fat ASS and get a job! As far as I am concerned she can EAT S..T!
The USDA has 6 billion on hand they could use to continue SNAP funding, so why won’t they? Maybe they should have stopped cutting social security checks instead, that would have upset many a boomer MAGA that rails against socialism while be payed by a socialist program. Republicans need to either negotiate or nuke the filibuster and quit pretending like they are powerless. Biden managed to keep the gov funded with a Republican House in 23 and 24, guess Trump is just not as smart or powerful as Biden.
Tell Schumer and his Dime Store Obama Bookert as well as Crocket and AOC to do the right thing or FO!
Previous poster totally misunderstands Social Security benefits… Not a government handout! I’m 79 years old and I contributed to my Social Security RETIREMENT FUND beginning at age 15 when I was bagging groceries for 50¢ per hour. I’m happily reaping the benefits of my lifetime retirement contributions.
Some people are clueless!
Disgusting. How about get a job at the Wal Mart to buy your processed junk instead of stealing and disturbing those that are there to work!
Yikes. Of all the things you could say about people potentially going hungry that’s the article you chose to publish? FITS is better than this. Many people on SNAP are working poor. They are the checker at your Walmart, filling your Amazon delivery, working at your gas stations…instead of presuming they will resort to violence, why not speak out against the corporate welfare that leaves the American taxpayer supplementing the budgets of the workers billionaires underpay. It’s like an episode of Punk’d and the joke is on us.
70% of people receiving SNAP also work – a lot of them in low wage jobs at places like Walmart and McDonalds.