The nation’s flagship food assistance program provides food to one in eight Americans each month.
Published November 3, 2025
President Donald Trump’s administration announced it will partially fund food benefits for low-income Americans after two judges ruled the program must continue amid the ongoing government shutdown.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s flagship food assistance program that serves one in eight Americans each month, was scheduled to be frozen on November 1, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on October 10 that it would no longer be able to fund the program if the shutdown continues.
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On Friday, federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island issued separate but similar rulings ordering the federal government to fund the benefits from reserve funds.
SNAP, colloquially known as food stamps, costs more than $8 billion to deploy each month and covers about $190, or $356, in groceries per household. Rewards are usually loaded onto your debit card.
In a motion filed Monday in Rhode Island state court, the Department of Agriculture agreed to “fulfill its obligation to disburse the full amount of SNAP emergency funds today.”
The administration plans to use up funds totaling about $5 billion, but not other funds that could fully fund SNAP, according to the filing.
The card loading process can take up to two weeks, so it’s not yet clear when beneficiaries will start receiving funds again or how much money they’ll end up with.
The justices gave the Trump administration until Monday to negotiate how to partially fund SNAP, with Boston U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruling that blocking the program was “unlawful” and “wrong.”
“This court has made clear that defendants must use these emergency funds as needed for the SNAP program,” she added.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island reached a similar conclusion, asking for an update from the administration on Monday and saying in a virtual hearing that “there is no dispute that irreparable harm will begin to occur” if SNAP is suspended.
The ruling came in response to a separate challenge to the Trump administration’s suspension of benefits.
Trump initially tried to use the potential loss of SNAP to attack “radical Democrats” on Friday’s Truth social platform, claiming the judges’ rulings were “contradictory.”
Meanwhile, right-wing disinformation about food stamps has surfaced online in recent days, with one viral chart claiming that “Afghans,” “Somali,” and “Iraqis” are the biggest beneficiaries of SNAP.
In fact, according to USDA data, white people are the largest users of SNAP, accounting for more than 35 percent of beneficiaries.
