Maximizing momentum: DECA implements new member training system
Page 4 Conestoga High School, Berwyn PA, 19312
Volume 76 No. 3
December 11, 2025
Stop confining women to life sciences
PagE 8
Freshman competes, teaches traditional Chinese dance
Page 11
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Community mobilizes
SNAP benefits disrupted due to government shutdown
Ashley Du/The SPOKE
Collecting donations: Members of student council and other students load up trucks full of food donations to address food insecurity. The student council’s annual food drive took place from Nov. 10 to 24 and collected more than 4,000 donated cans.
By Sophia Cui, Ashley Du and Erin Zhang, Co-Design Editor, Co-News Editor and Co-Copy Editor Student Council members gather outside with carts, boxes and bags full of donated food on Nov. 24. Joined by other students, they load cars with more than 4,000 cans of donations from their annual food drive. This year’s collection, along with various other
community efforts, aimed to support local food banks in response to a temporary delay in operations of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In November, the federal government shutdown caused SNAP to experience the first national-level disruption to the issuance of food benefits in the program’s 60-year history. “We’re able to provide this opportunity for those who want to help out in the community to even do something small,” senior and Student Council president Jeffrey Wang said. “The goal is just to help
people, and it just so happens that this year there’s probably more people that need aid, unfortunately.” SNAP provides electronic benefits transfer cards for low-income families to purchase eligible food items at grocery stores, farmers markets and online retailers. Currently, the federal government funds monthly benefits while states administer the program to recipients. According to the official website of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, nearly one in eight state residents depend on SNAP. Due to the recent federal government shutdown, which
started on Oct. 1, states received delayed funding to implement SNAP payments during the month of November. The disruption continued until Nov. 12, when President Donald Trump signed a funding bill reopening the federal government. State Rep. Melissa Shusterman, who serves Chester County, advocated for the national administration to fund SNAP and collected food donations during the shutdown. “According to DHS (Pennsylvania Department of Human Services), nearly two million Pennsylvanians (rely) on SNAP
benefits. With the delay of these benefits along with delayed payments of state funding and grants because of the state budget impasse, our county governments and food banks were experiencing additional financial pressures,” Shusterman wrote in an email. “At the state level, my colleagues and I signed a letter urging the federal government to utilize available emergency funds for SNAP. PA does not have the bandwidth to cover these federal benefits.” The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) notified states on Oct. 10 that it would not
use contingency funds to cover November SNAP benefits. On Oct. 31, two federal judges from Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled that the USDA must use the emergency funds. However, the funds only covered around half of the necessary monthly benefits. Administrative delays and conflicting court rulings led to partial payments and differing levels of SNAP distribution across states until the reopening of the federal government. On Nov. 12, the USDA officially began directing states to distribute full SNAP payments. The Pennsylvania DHS finished
restoring all of SNAP’s November benefits on Nov. 14. Kevin Ressler, CEO of the Coatesville-based public health organization Alliance for Health Equity, emphasized the importance of SNAP and food security. “Food justice is a critical component of ensuring that we have a society that is productive, effective and healthy,” Ressler said. “What does it mean to be a part of this country and this culture? We’ve had a history of providing support for folks.” Continued on page 3.
Third-party voter information found missing from Chester County poll books Tvisha Jani
Co-Copy Editor Soon after Chester County’s 230 precincts opened at 7 a.m. for the Nov. 4 municipal election, poll workers discovered that poll books countywide did not include third-party voter information. The cause of the incident is currently unknown, though the county is conducting an ongoing investigation. According to a Nov. 10 news flash on the Chester County website, the event affected 75,076 out of 385,856 registered voters. Judges of Elections at each polling place directed third-party voters — including voters registered as independent, libertarian, “no affiliation” or “non-partisan” — to cast their vote using provisional ballots. Third-party voters used provisional ballots until supplemental
poll books arrived to precincts. The county then announced judicial approval to extend voting hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Elizabeth Luminais is the Judge of Elections at polling place 618, which is located at TEMS. She oversaw the polling place’s voting process and guided third-party voters. “It took longer to fill out this ballot than a lot of ballots. Then with the provisional ballots, they had to fold it and put it in a secrecy envelope, seal the secrecy envelope, put that secrecy envelope inside another envelope, seal that and bring it back to me,” Luminais said. “I would say it took between five and 15 minutes, depending on how compulsive people were about rereading instructions.” The Nov. 10 news flash stated that voters cast more than 12,100 provisional ballots on Election
Day, which is greater than the amount of provisional ballots cast in recent presidential election years. The county finished tabulating provisional ballots which met legal requirements by the end of the day on Nov. 13, before accepting 1,400 more that it had put aside on Nov. 17. “The Voter Services person said, ‘All hands on deck on provisional ballots. Right now, 24/7, we’re processing provisional ballots. Then we will do the investigation because the most important thing is to complete the election,’” Luminais said. On Nov. 17, Chester County announced on its website the timeline of the investigation and that the West Chester-based law firm Fleck Eckert Klein McGarry, LLC (FEKM) will investigate the incident. FEKM gave updates on the investigation during the Nov.
21 Chester County Board of Elections meeting and will present the concluding report, which explains why the mishap occurred and recommendations for future election procedures, to the public in a December 2025 or January 2026 Board of Elections meeting. Senior and third-party voter Caleb Chong cast his ballot at the Easttown Library polling place. Chong feels that the additional steps for casting a provisional ballot could have been a challenge for third-party voters. “I don’t think (the impact) is that big. I think it definitely did have an impact, though. I can definitely see someone messing up the (provisional ballot) and their vote not counting, or someone just leaving entirely because of it,” Chong said. “No matter how small that impact was, it definitely did matter.”
Aanya Gandi/The SPOKE
Historic Duportail House: The Duportail house currently serves as a wedding and event venue. The Tredyffrin Township Historical Commission started converting the house into a heritage center three years ago.
Duportail House group renovate area into heritage center Aanya Gandi Staff Reporter
Jeffrey Heng/The SPOKE
Predicament at the polls: Poll workers wait for voters at TEMS the morning of the Nov. 4 election. The poll books did not include third-party voter information.
During the Nov. 5 Board of Supervisors meeting, the Tredyffrin Township board members heard a resolution for the Tredyffrin Heritage Center at Duportail House project. The board members applied for an $80,000 grant from the Local Share Account, a Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development program that funds community development projects. The Duportail House currently operates as an event venue. For the past three years, the Tredyffrin Township Historical Commission has helped convert the Duportail House and its nearby Federal Barn and Jones Log Barn into a heritage center that will be part of
America’s 250th anniversary celebration, attracting tourists in 2026 and 2027. “The Duportail group (people associated with the house) has really come together for the last two years to create a nonprofit that will be changing their current sole practice as a wedding and event venue into more of a heritage center,” said Rob Williams, chair of the Tredyffrin Historical Commission, at the Nov. 5 meeting. According to Williams, there will initially be 12 heritage centers ranging from the location of the Paoli Battlefield, Historic Yellow Springs and Goshenville Blacksmith shop to Brandywine Battlefield. Williams also stated that the $80,000 Local Share Account grant would finance brick, mortar, data and electricity for the Dupor-
tail House, as well as the barns on the property. The grant would not put any financial commitment on the township. All of the heritage groups in Tredyffrin/Easttown had a meeting with 25 representatives from TESD for schools to be able to travel to the Duportail House for field trips. Freshman Aryahi Khale has lived near the Duportail House for about five years. She recently learned about the renovations for the venue and felt excited about T/E schools going to the Duportail House for field trips. “I think this will give the kids an opportunity to learn more about the heritage of this area and more about the history of the house itself,” Khale said. “I think this would be very, very informational for children.”