US states this week began warning food aid recipients that their benefits may not be distributed in November if the federal government shutdown extends into a fourth week.
At least two dozen state websites have issued alerts highlighting the potential for an unprecedented gap in benefits for the more than 41 million people who receive assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and nearly 7 million enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.
“This could be a historic disruption of federal food assistance,” said Georgia Machell, CEO of the National WIC Association.
A hunger crisis is imminent
A long outage could worsen already rising hunger rates across the country. Earlier this year, the Trump administration cut funding to food banks and imposed stricter work requirements for SNAP — moves that anti-hunger advocates say have already strained safety nets.
Food banks and advocacy groups are now preparing for the surge in emergency. “We are telling families to prepare for missed benefits,” one anti-hunger coalition leader told Reuters.
States are sounding the alarm
Several states — including Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania and Texas — have warned that November benefits will not be issued if the shutdown continues into next week.
“SNAP benefits for November will not be released if the federal government shutdown continues beyond October 27,” the Texas Health and Human Services Commission said on its website.
The Oregon Department of Human Services urged residents to plan ahead: “We encourage everyone who receives SNAP to learn about free food sources in their community and make a plan for what they will do if they do not receive their food benefits in time in November.”
Limited federal communications
Food benefits typically continue during short shutdowns through contingency plans between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and states. But this time, the states say communication from the USDA was unusually limited.
USDA instructed states on Oct. 10 not to send beneficiary data to electronic benefit transfer (EBT) processors, a necessary step for issuing next month’s benefits, but did not provide further guidance, according to Conduent, an EBT processor serving 37 states.
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USDA funds are running out
The USDA currently has about $5 billion in contingency funds, enough to cover only part of one month of SNAP benefits, which cost about $8 billion a month, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The agency has not confirmed whether it plans to use these funds.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration redirected about $300 million in tariff revenue to fund October’s WIC benefits, but has not indicated whether it will repeat the move in November.
“Without additional funding, November could see historic disruptions to WIC services,” Machell warned.
Political blame game
The shutdown — now the second-longest in U.S. history — has fueled a partisan blame game. Democrats have withheld votes on the spending bill, arguing that it would otherwise cause health insurance costs to rise, while Republicans have accused them of political obstruction.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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