The U.S. government exited a 43-day long shutdown on Nov. 12 that delayed funding for and temporarily paused key federal programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Head Start. The shutdown also created many airport and national park service staff reductions, leading to national and local impacts as flights were grounded and national parks provided limited service. When President Donald Trump signed the bill to reopen the government, it marked the end of the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The government shuts down when Congress is unable to reach a majority vote to pass a large bill that determines the budget for the government before the end of the fiscal year, or in this case, Sept. 30. The Democratic-backed funding proposal included an extension of the Affordable Care Act — a law that provides health insurance to the uninsured — and clashed with the Republican-backed proposal that aimed to fund the government for a short period of time and excluded an ACA extension. Neither party initially gave in to the other’s demands, beginning the shutdown on Oct. 1. The bill that was passed to end the shutdown did not contain an extension for the federal health insurance subsidies.
SNAP provides funds to low-income households for groceries each month.Nationally, about one in eight Americans receive SNAP benefits, and some 40 million people were impacted by the pause in service. Over five million people receive SNAP benefits in California and over half a million people rely upon it in the Bay Area, according to USAFacts. In response to SNAP services being suspended, the SELF program hosted a food drive to provide resources specifically to Gunn families from Oct. 30 to Dec. 4. The food drive primarily collected canned and dried goods and cooking necessities, as well as gift cards and monetary donations to Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley. Over 21 families — more than 100 people — received food from the drive. SELF leaders organized a competition between grades of who could donate the most to the food drive, promoting the cause.
SELF Coordinators Christina Norberg and Laurel Howard worked for many hours to organize and execute the food drive. Safety and Family Specialist Jose Ordonez made contact with families to efficiently get food to them.
Norberg feels proud of the Gunn community for their effort and support in the food drive.
“It’s really been a group effort, and I feel like that is so heartwarming to see people coming together, provide support and then also be able to actually do something right,” she said.
Norberg finds it important that community members are constantly looking out for each other, ensuring that families are getting the food they need.
“I’m glad that we have been able to provide (resources) to the number of families we have,” she said.
Second Harvest Food Bank, a Silicon Valley organization with a goal to end hunger in the Bay Area, also responded to SNAP service reductions with its own host of food drives.
The Head Start program educates and supports over 85,000 children in California at around 1,800 individual locations with about $1.6 billion in federal funds. Head Start CA Executive Director Melanee Cottrill wrote in an email that four programs across California were significantly impacted by the shutdown. One of those locations, Encompass Community Services in Santa Cruz, had to close and will unfortunately not reopen.
Many of the children were able to transfer to a nearby district temporarily, Cottrill wrote, and they now face issues with the center being closed. The other three programs were able to continue operating, but the 4,000 community members that ECS supported each year now have to search for other ways to obtain various health and human services.
Air traffic controllers, who are employees of the Federal Aviation Administration, coordinate arrivals and departures of the majority of flights that occur in the national airspace such as some of the biggest airports in the U.S., including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York John F. Kennedy International airports. Due to the shutdown, many FAA workers faced work without pay, leading to many staffing shortages. This led to over 11,000 cancelled flights over U.S. airspace and many more delayed during the shutdown.
Some members of the Gunn cross country team flew to New York for a competition in early November, and both athletes and coaches were worried about the possibility of their 1 a.m. school night, red eye flight back — arriving just eight hours before school started — being delayed due to the shutdown. Team member junior Noah Cheng shares the stress he felt for himself and his fellow student athletes during the trip due to potential shutdown impacts on their academic success.
“It makes me feel worried for not just myself, but other people (as well), because of how dependent everyone is on flights being on time,” he said. “(Delays) could mess up how much sleep we got as well, which could affect performance.”
National parks across the U.S. temporarily lost many employees due to the shutdown, which led to a decrease in park maintenance, causing many visitor centers, bathrooms and roads to close. Increases in human waste problems and vandalism were also rampant among parks that saw severe staff reductions. People made 330 million recreational visits across all U.S. national parks in 2024. The ones in California are quite popular. Park rangers ensure that wildlife thrives, everyone is enjoying nature safely and people treat the parks with respect. One impact that a lack of human traffic can have on landmarks is giving nature time to heal.
Sophomore Victoria Blanchet has gone on family vacations to national parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon. She sees the importance in people always being able to access the countless beauties and so much wildlife
that national parks hold. The government shutdown, for Blanchet, hinders the ability to preserve the national parks.
“I think what gets people to care about wildlife in national parks is being able to experience it firsthand,” she said. “I think pictures don’t do (national parks) justice, and if you’re there, I think that is what gets people to care. That’s what gets people to continue to take care of these parks and preserve them.”
A little more than three weeks since the end of the shutdown, SNAP is running at almost the same level, Head Start has recovered, planes are flying smoothly and national parks, enjoying a short recovery from human interaction, are functioning well.
