Emergency Food Assistance

Translated informational videos and food pantry flyers can be found at the bottom of this page

Restoring Dignity launches “Feed A Family” Program

Donate to the Omaha Community Foundation Food Relief Fund

Donate to the United Way Emergency Food Fund

Restoring Dignity’s statement at a press conference on October 20th, 2025

As of October 20th, 2025, anyone who does not have a green card is no longer eligible for SNAP (food assistance) benefits or LIHEAP (heat assistance during the winter). This is a result of the Reconciliation Bill (One Big Bill) that was passed by the Trump Administration and Congress. This change impacts anyone who was brought to the United States as a refugee over the past three years. Many Afghans who served alongside US troops in Afghanistan will be impacted. As will Ukrainians who fled from the war in their home country. Among many others.

Nebraska DHHS released this announcement on their website on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025

In Omaha, we are estimating between 3,000 to 4,000 refugees will lose their food and heat assistance. This number does not include other groups who will be losing SNAP benefits as well. These are children, the elderly, moms, dads, sisters and brothers who are at risk of malnutrition and starvation if other food options are not readily available. The overwhelming majority of these families work in meat packing, factory and other labor intensive jobs, that do not pay enough to cover all living expenses, including food. The average income of a family we serve through our Restoring Dignity programming is around $50,000 for a family of five. Trying to live on that amount, plus covering all food expenses is essentially impossible. SNAP has been the only lifeline for these families to survive.

Omaha will need to rise up to meet this need immediately. We are also asking everyone to become a monthly donor to at least one food pantry in Omaha. Pick one closest to your home or work, or that you recognize or have supported in the past, and start giving $10 or $20 a month, or whatever amount you can. If we all pitch in, we can help support the crisis we are now in. Food pantries have informed us that they can purchase twice as much food with the same money that would be spent at a grocery store, because they buy wholesale. So monetary donations go twice as far and are preferred over dropping food off. They will also need volunteers to help handle this new influx of need.

Click here to download this grid of food pantries and links/QR codes for donating and volunteering.

If you are a food pantry and you would like to be added to this document, please fill out this form.

Our State Senators and Governor will need to take action to fund this new food emergency through special State funding. Please contact your state senator and tell them to fund this crisis immediately.

For a permanent fix, our Nebraska delegation will need to repeal section 10108 of the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Every single one of our elected officials who represent Nebraska in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate voted to pass this bill, which included SNAP cuts in Nebraska for refugees, Afghans, Ukrainians and other vulnerable families. Whether they understood or not that Section 10108 was in the bill or not, the result is the same. They are the only ones who can truly fix this, by repealing what they voted into law. Contact your representatives: In the meantime, we will have to use the resources we have available, which are our food pantries, who are already over capacity. We have translated flyers into 13 languages for food pantries in Omaha. Please give these flyers out to families who are impacted by these cuts. If you are a food pantry and would like to have a flyer created and translated, please fill out this form.

Here is a presentation given on 10/17/25 by Restoring Dignity and Nebraska Appleseed about these SNAP cuts:

Here are the slides for the presentation

Read Restoring Dignity’s email newsletter sent on 10/20/2025, “Emergency Food Crisis Beginning in Omaha Today”

Media Coverage:

Food Pantry Flyer Translations

(flyers sorted alphabetically by language)

Example of flyer in Burmese

Flyers are currently being translated and added here as fast as we can get them up. Please check back frequently for new flyer uploads (10/17/25)

Arabic Flyers & Videos

Caseworkers: Download one-page flyer with QR code to bring your Arabic speaking clients to this page

Video #1: Important SNAP cuts information for Non Green Card Holders