Nearly 70 Chicago groups receive micro-grants after SNAP cuts, deportation campaign

Mayor Brandon Johnson announced on Thursday that 67 organizations across Chicago are receiving $4,500 micro-grants each through the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

The money is being doled out to help offset the strain Chicago’s small businesses and community groups are feeling after the federal deportation campaign and cuts to food assistance under the Trump administration.

“I have to admit, I do know that sometimes government — we can move a little slow,” Johnson said at Malcolm X College Thursday. “So the $4,500 grants that are issued, we are not just investing in services that you provide, but the leadership that you provide and the trust that you have built with residents. You embody the spirit of our collective responsibility.”

In November 2025, Johnson signed an executive order directing city resources to the Food Depository to support local organizations and businesses affected by a lapse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding during the 43-day government shutdown.

As part of that effort, the city launched the micro-grant program to help businesses hit by both reduced SNAP purchasing power and drops in foot-traffic from federal immigration enforcement.

The SNAP funding pause was felt for many Chicagoans in early November, but small businesses and organizations were impacted months before due to increased immigration operations. In addition, expanded work requirements for SNAP recipients that went into effect this spring are expected to push about 150,000 people out of the program starting in May, according to the latest estimates from state officials.

Working Family Solidarity lead organizer, Kevin Johnson Jr., 26, said more than half of his organization is Hispanic, and nearly 40% of members are undocumented.

“Directly after SNAP benefits were cut, it became kind of Armageddon for us a little bit,” he said.

The Pilsen-based community group provides support to Black and Latino communities across Chicago.

“One of our workers, who's a single mother of two children, had her benefits cut so this is something that is literally stopping individuals from being able to feed their children and feed themselves,” Johnson said.

The organization intends to use their grant to host food and resource drives across Chicago.

Dulce Morales, 45, co-founded Cedillo’s Fresh Produce with her husband. The Englewood-based farm received SNAP benefits to support operational costs.

“We are still in production,” said Morales, “but it has impacted the income that it's coming to us.”

The family farm owns a truck used to make deliveries to local markets across Chicago.

“We want to continue to feed people, but it's very hard when now you got to struggle with ‘and should I drive or not?’” Morales said.

Morales said the $4,500 grant will help offset rising gas prices and insurance costs for the truck.

Maria’h Foster from the group Life is Work said food insecurity in Austin has always been prevalent, but SNAP funding cuts have amplified the need for more resources.

Foster said the organization intends to use their grant to contribute to their existing food pantry, stressing that there is a large range of communities in need.

“It's not just Black and Latinx communities that are being impacted,” Foster said. “aging populations, elders, individuals with disabilities, individuals who have HIV, individuals who are veterans — those are the populations that also have been vulnerable and impacted by this, that kind of get left out.”