Food Access, SNAP, and Collective Well-Being: Why Helping Each Other Nourishes More Than Our Bodies

by Dr. Denise Renye

Food is one of the most basic human needs. It is also a profound expression of dignity, safety, and belonging. When access to food becomes uncertain, especially through policy decisions like reductions or disruptions in SNAP (CalFresh) benefits, it is not simply a logistical inconvenience. It reverberates through our nervous systems, our communities, and our collective psyche.

Food insecurity is never just about hunger.
It is about safety.
It is about worthiness.
It is about whether we live in a society organized around care or around scarcity and punishment.

When Policy Creates Trauma

Programs like SNAP exist because feeding people is a public good. Yet when these benefits are reduced or restricted, families are pushed into fear, uncertainty, and survival mode.

Scarcity is not a neutral experience. It leaves physiological and psychological imprints. Research on trauma and poverty has long shown that:

• Uncertainty about resources increases stress hormone levels

• Chronic insecurity alters how the brain and nervous system function

• Lack of safety diminishes our ability to plan, rest, and connect

• An environment of punishment and withholding amplifies fear and shame

When the government restricts access to basic nutrition, it contributes to collective trauma by reinforcing a message that survival must be earned. That worth must be proven. That not everyone deserves to thrive.

That is a painful and deeply false story.

A Collective Nervous System

One of the most profound truths emerging from trauma research is this: we regulate one another. When many of us feel unsafe, it affects all of us. Scarcity culture frays the social nervous system. It turns communities into isolated units trying to survive instead of connected networks rooted in care.

In contrast, when communities mobilize to care for one another, we heal not only individual bodies but the collective body. Mutual aid, community food programs, and compassionate policy are forms of nervous system repair. They signal: We are responsible for one another. You matter. You deserve nourishment.

How Marin Is Responding

In Marin County, families affected by SNAP (CalFresh) benefit disruptions can access support through community partners who are working hard to keep food on every table. Local efforts include:

• Marin Community Foundation's Food on Every Table fund

• SF-Marin Food Bank and local food pantries

• Farmers market vendors providing immediate support

• Marin County HHS resources for emergency CalFresh assistance

Direct Food Assistance Programs

• North Marin Community Services
  Accepting food donations at 1907 Novato Blvd, Novato
  Mondays 9 am to 12 pm
  Priority items include canned tuna, chicken, salmon, low-sodium soups, nut butters, and rice

• San Geronimo Valley Community Center
  Food pantry open Mondays 9 am to 5 pm and Thursdays 11 am to 2 pm

• Ritter Center
  Serving low-income and unhoused Marin residents

• Marin Community Clinics Health Hub
  Food pantry open to all community members

Many of these organizations can also connect families with emergency food support and resources.

How You Can Help If you have financial means

• Donate to local food banks and mutual aid programs

• Sponsor grocery gift cards for families

• Contribute to the Marin Community Foundation food fund

If you have food or time to offer

• Donate shelf-stable nutritious staples to local pantries

• Volunteer at food distribution sites

• Offer to deliver food to homebound neighbors

If you have a voice in your community

• Advocate for restored and expanded SNAP benefits

• Contact elected officials to support food justice and safety-net programs

• Speak about food insecurity without stigma or shame

Food as Community Medicine

When someone is nourished, their body relaxes. Their nervous system settles. Choice and dignity return. They can parent, work, dream, and heal.

Food access is healthcare. It is mental health care. It is trauma prevention. It is an expression of the world we choose to build.

We are living through a time that repeatedly asks us to decide whether we will uphold systems rooted in scarcity and shame or cultivate cultures grounded in belonging and nourishment.

Every act of generosity is a signal to the collective nervous system:

We will not abandon one another.
No one is disposable.
Everyone deserves to eat.

This is how we begin to heal, not only as individuals but as a community and as a culture.