Diner Feeds Kids for Free While Congress Argues
Southwest Diner in Boulder City, Nevada, started giving away free meals to kids this week. Not for publicity. Because SNAP benefits got cut off and families can't buy groceries.
"I just don't think kids should be caught in the middle of a political fight," owner Cindy Ford told ABC News. "I just feel no child deserves to not be fed."
The federal government shutdown hit 36 days Wednesday, officially the longest in U.S. history. About 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—lost access to food assistance over the weekend. Congress can't agree on funding, so families with kids go hungry while we all wait.
A Diner Steps Up
Ford has run Southwest Diner for 33 years. She did this during COVID too when families were struggling. Now she's doing it again because politicians would rather argue than fund basic assistance programs.
The restaurant has already served over 30 free meals to kids this week. Menu includes eggs, bacon, pancakes, and French toast for breakfast. Lunch features hot dogs, quesadillas, grilled cheese, corn dogs, hamburgers, and chicken fingers.
"Our number-one goal is to make sure that kids are fed," said Sara Olson, a manager at the diner. "These kids are our future, so we need to take care of them."
That's a restaurant manager in a small Nevada town stepping up while the government shuts down.
The Government's Plan
A judge ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds for SNAP during the shutdown. The administration committed to $4.65 billion—partial funding, not full. But a USDA official admitted in a sworn court filing Monday that getting those reduced benefits distributed could take "a few weeks to up to several months."
Meanwhile, kids still need to eat daily.
On Capitol Hill, there were over a dozen failed votes to reopen the government. Democrats want Affordable Care Act subsidies included in any funding bill. Republicans won't negotiate on the ACA until the government reopens. Neither side will budge.
Meanwhile, actual humans can't afford food.
Nevada had nearly 500,000 people receiving SNAP benefits as of May, the most recent data available. Half a million people in one state depending on a program that just stopped working because of a political standoff.
Why This Matters
Boulder City is small. The kind of place where businesses survive because locals support them for decades. Southwest Diner lasted 33 years because the community kept showing up.
"If it wasn't for the people we wouldn't be here," Ford said. "Boulder City is a small town, and they've supported me for 33 years. I can support people that don't have as much."
She pointed out what everyone already knows. Grocery prices are brutal. Insurance costs keep climbing. Then SNAP benefits disappear overnight because politicians can't function.
"It's extremely difficult nowadays with the price of groceries at the store, with insurance, just with everything," Ford said. "There's a lot of people out there struggling, a lot of single moms with kids."
Single parents working full-time jobs still can't always make ends meet. Losing federal food assistance on top of everything else isn't theoretical—it means kids don't eat.
The Absurdity
This shouldn't require a small-town diner to fix. A 36-day government shutdown—the longest in U.S. history—shouldn't result in millions of families losing food assistance because Congress can't agree on anything.
Kids didn't vote for this. Yet, they are the ones suffering.
Southwest Diner feeding children for free is admirable. It's also sad that it's necessary. A restaurant with a decades-long history in a small Nevada town has to step in because the federal government stopped functioning over political disagreements about healthcare subsidies.
"If everybody helps everybody, the world will be a better place," Ford said. "But I think it's totally unfair that the benefits they were getting are just gone."
She's right. The benefits families relied on for groceries just vanished because politicians couldn't compromise. Not gradually phased out with warning. Just gone.
Ford is doing what she can. Feeding kids pancakes and grilled cheese while Congress racks up failed votes and points fingers.
The emergency SNAP funding might show up in weeks. Or months. Nobody actually knows. Families can't wait months for bureaucracy to sort itself out. They need food now.
That's why a diner in Boulder City is giving away free meals to children while 535 members of Congress can't figure out how to fund a program that feeds 42 million Americans.
Ford has run her business for over three decades. She knows what matters. Feed the kids first, argue about subsidies later.
Congress might want to try that approach. Or they could keep voting on bills that fail while a restaurant owner in Nevada addresses the actual problem.