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By GEOFF MULVIHILL and KIMBERLEE KRUESI

Summary: – Federal judges ordered the USDA to continue SNAP during the shutdown. – $4.65 billion emergency fund covers only half of normal benefits. – Millions may see delays and reduced food aid in November.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — President Donald Trump‘s administration said Monday that it will partially fund SNAP for November, after two judges issued rulings requiring the government to keep the nation’s largest food aid program running.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, had planned to freeze payments starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it during the federal government shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs more than $8 billion per month nationally. The government says an emergency fund it will use has $4.65 billion — enough to cover about half the normal benefits.

Exhausting the fund potentially sets the stage for a similar situation in December if the shutdown isn’t resolved by then.

It’s not clear exactly how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly they will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries. November payments have already been delayed for millions of people.

“The Trump Administration has the means to fund this program in full, and their decision not to will leave millions of Americans hungry and waiting even longer for relief as government takes the additional steps needed to partially fund this program,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, who led a coalition of Democratic state officials in one of the lawsuits that forced the funding, said in a statement.

How will SNAP beneficiaries manage?

People who receive the benefits are trying to figure out how to stretch their grocery money further.

Corina Betancourt, who’s 40 and lives in Glendale, Arizona, already uses a food bank sometimes to get groceries for herself and her three kids, ages 8 through 11. With her SNAP benefits reduced and delayed, she’s expecting to use the food bank more and find ways to stretch what she has further.

But she is worried that there won’t be enough for her children to eat with about $400 this month instead of around $800. “We always make things work somehow, some way,” she said.

In Camden, New Jersey, 41-year-old Jamal Brown, who is paralyzed after a series of strokes and on a fixed income, said family members asked him for a list of groceries he needs so they can stock him up.

But not everyone has that help.

“How did you expect to live a healthy life if you’re not eating the right stuff?” he asked. “If you don’t have the access to the food stamps, you’re going to go to the cheapest thing that you can afford.”

Details on how payments will roll out are still to come

The administration said it would provide details to states on Monday on calculating the per-household partial benefit. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states. But the USDA warned in a court filing that it could take weeks or even months for states to make all the system changes to send out reduced benefits. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference that it would take his state about a week to load benefit cards once the funding is made available.

“These are folks who are hungry, and every day matters,” Bonta said.

The USDA said last month that benefits for November wouldn’t be paid due to the federal government shutdown. That set off a scramble by food banks, state governments and the nearly 42 million Americans who receive the aid to find ways to ensure access to groceries.

The liberal group Democracy Forward, which represented plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said it was considering legal options to force full SNAP funding.

Other high-profile Democrats are calling for the government to do that on its own.

“USDA has the authority to fully fund SNAP and needs to do so immediately. Anything else is unacceptable,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on social media.

State governments step in

Most states have boosted aid to food banks, and some are setting up systems to reload benefit cards with state taxpayer dollars. The threat of a delay also spurred lawsuits.

Federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled separately but similarly Friday, telling the government in response to lawsuits filed by Democratic state officials, cities and non-profits that it was required to use one emergency fund to pay for the program, at least in part. They gave the government the option to use additional money to fully fund the program and a deadline of Monday to decide.

Patrick Penn, Deputy Under Secretary Food Nutrition and Consumer Services for USDA, said in a court filing Monday that the department chose not to tap other emergency funds to ensure there’s not a gap in child nutrition programs for the rest of this fiscal year, which runs through September 2026.

Advocates and beneficiaries say halting the food aid would force people to choose between buying groceries and paying other bills. The majority of states have announced more or expedited funding for food banks or novel ways to load at least some benefits onto the SNAP debit cards.

New Mexico and Rhode Island officials said Monday that some SNAP beneficiaries received funds over the weekend from their emergency programs. Officials in Delaware are telling recipients that their benefits won’t be available until at least Nov. 7.

To qualify for SNAP in 2025, a household’s net income after certain expenses can’t exceed the federal poverty line. For a family of four, that’s about $32,000 per year.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) ─ The Trump administration has indicated that it will not appeal court orders directing it to pay SNAP benefits, but that it will only issue partial payments in November.

The Trump administration previously said funding for SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a major part of the nation’s social safety net — was scheduled to lapse Nov. 1 due to the federal government shutdown.

But Judge Jack McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island said Oct. 31 the Agriculture Department must distribute the contingency funds “timely, or as soon as possible, for the November 1 payments to be made.”

In a Nov. 3 brief, USDA’s lawyers wrote it “will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of SNAP contingency funds today.”

The brief said that the Food and Nutrition Service, which administers SNAP, will spend about $450 million of the contingency funds paying for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, with another $150 million for food programs in the U.S. territories Puerto Rico and American Samoa, and the remaining $4.65 billion will pay for SNAP benefits, representing about 50% of payments to eligible households.

“This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,” the brief said.

About 42 million — or 1-in-8 — Americans rely on SNAP. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that in fiscal year 2023, 79% of SNAP recipient households included either a child, an elderly individual or a nonelderly individual with a disability.

Qualified SNAP recipients receive monthly allowances through electronic benefit transfer accounts, with SNAP EBT cards used like debit or credit cards to purchase essential foods and seeds to grow food. Sales tax, prepared food, pet foods, nonfood items, alcohol, tobacco, vitamins and medicine are excluded.

Catholic leaders and ministries were among those who raised alarm at the prospect of a lapse in federal food assistance.

Trump previously indicated his administration would not appeal the order in an Oct. 31 post on his social media website, Truth Social.

“Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do. I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT. Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”

But Trump said there would be a delay, pointing at Democrats’ objections to a GOP-backed funding bill to keep the government open.

“It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” he said. “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”

However, during a lengthy government shutdown during the first Trump administration, the Department of Agriculture authorized early processing of SNAP funds to ensure there would be no disruption in service, the Huffington Post noted.

In a post on X, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer replied that “USDA has the authority to fully fund SNAP and needs to do so immediately. Anything else is unacceptable.”

“Trump’s ‘decision’ to follow the court order and only send partial SNAP benefits to 42 million hungry Americans as Thanksgiving approaches is cruel and callous,” he said.

“Trump should focus less on his ballroom and his bathroom and more on the American people,” Schumer added in reference to recent White House renovations, which include the demolition of the East Wing.

In anticipation of a lapse in federal food assistance programs, Catholic Charities USA, the network organization dedicated to carrying out the domestic humanitarian work of the Catholic Church in the United States, announced a national fundraising effort to provide an emergency supply of food to Catholic Charities agencies around the country.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday it will partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after judges ordered the federal government to keep the nation’s largest food aid program running during the ongoing government shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, had planned to freeze payments starting Nov. 1, saying it could no longer fund the program during the shutdown. SNAP, which serves about one in eight Americans and costs more than $8 billion per month, will now rely on a $4.65 billion emergency fund — enough to cover half the benefits.

Information on how much recipients will receive or when benefits will appear on their cards has not been given. The USDA said it would issue guidance to states on calculating partial payments, but cautioned that system changes could take weeks or even months.

“The Trump Administration has the means to fund this program in full, and their decision not to will leave millions of Americans hungry and waiting even longer for relief,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement. Campbell led one of the lawsuits that forced the partial restoration of benefits.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced new state-led efforts to support the more than two million residents who rely on SNAP. The governor said the state will immediately distribute $5 million in emergency funding to Feeding Pennsylvania to bolster its network of food banks across the Commonwealth.

Shapiro also signed a disaster emergency declaration to expedite the delivery of funds, streamline contracting and provide the state additional flexibility to respond.

“Nearly two million Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP every month — and they shouldn’t have to wonder where their next meal will come from because of the dysfunction in Washington,” Shapiro said. “There is no substitute for the federal government’s decision not to release SNAP benefits, but my administration is stepping up to use every tool we have — state resources, private sector support and the compassion of our communities — to make sure our food banks are fully stocked and our families are fed.”

The USDA’s initial plan to suspend SNAP payments sparked alarm among food banks, state agencies and the nearly 42 million Americans who depend on the aid to buy groceries.

“Food banks are already struggling to meet the needs of those facing hunger and cannot fill the gap if SNAP and WIC payments are halted,” said Dawn Godshall, CEO of Community Action Lehigh Valley. “USDA can, and must, use all available options to ensure that millions of families across the country, including nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians, can put enough food on the table come November.”

Sarah Wassel, associate executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank, said the ripple effects of reduced SNAP funding stretch far beyond the households who rely on the program.

“When SNAP funding was cut before, we immediately saw the need at the pantries increase — but at the same time, our corporate donors, like grocery stores, actually stopped donating because their sales dropped,” Wassel said. “It’s not just a trickle-down effect. It’s a trickle-around. It hits everyone — grocery store prices, staffing, local jobs. It’s like an oil spill. You know there’s damage, but you don’t know how much.”

Attorney General William Tong speaks about the SNAP program at a media briefing Nov. 3, 2025 in Hartford, CT. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie

The decision by the administration of President Donald Trump to partially fund SNAP benefits during the federal government shutdown is a continuation of a cruel strategy to weaponize hunger for political gain, according to Attorney General William Tong.

A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts ruled Friday that U.S. Department of Agriculture must use its contingency funds — estimated at about $5 billion — to provide benefits during the shutdown. USDA had until the end of the day today to report to the court whether it would partially or fully fund the SNAP program, using additional available funds that have been tapped during prior shutdowns.

The court decision came after a coalition of 26 states sued to restore the benefits.

“Donald Trump is purposely and illegally starving American families for political leverage,” Tong said Monday afternoon. “We sued to force him to release these contingency funds — paid for by taxpayers and obligated by Congress to help Americans buy food at a time when grocery prices are already out of control. Because of our lawsuit, these dollars now will make their way to EBT cards, and that is important relief for the 366,000 people in Connecticut relying on these funds to eat. But this is not close to good enough.”

The USDA plan for the contingency funds is to partially fund the program, providing about half of the normal benefits. The total SNAP benefit varies based in household size and income, but for a family of four averages about $715 a month.

Tong said he and other state attorneys general were evaluating their options to force the administration to fully fund the program that helps feed about 42 million Americans.

Earlier Monday Tong, Gov. Ned Lamont and Sen. Richard Blumenthal had joined advocates at the Hands on Hartford Manna Food Pantry to highlight the pain that the suspension of SNAP benefits would cause the 366,000 state SNAP recipients. Gov. Ned Lamont speaks about SNAP funding while Sen. Richard Blumenthal looks on at the Hands on Hartford Manna Food Pantry on Nov. 3, 2025. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie

“People are really hurting as a result of this shutdown,” Blumenthal said. He added that the administration’s withholding of SNAP funds was intended to put more political pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown, but also simply to inflict pain.

“He has stopped the SNAP program even though he has both the authority and the funding to provide it,” Blumenthal said.

Tong was more blunt.

“What the hell are we doing here?” he said. “We should be here feeding people right now. We should have clients, customers, the people that you (food pantry officials) serve getting food so they can feed their families and their children and going on with their day, and most of them (going) to work.”

Lamont, noting the sparsely stocked shelves at the food pantry, said help was on the way as a result of $3 million in assistance the state released to CT Foodshare last week.

“Those shelves will be filled with fresh produce,” he said. “Starting at 4:30 this morning, at Foodshare, eight new trucks loaded with fresh produce, going out and serving hundreds of shelters across the state because the need is real.”