The United States Department of Agriculture, in a message on their website, announced on Oct. 27 that no SNAP benefits would be sent out on Nov. 1 if the government shutdown continued.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also referred to as food stamps, is federally funded and provides assistance to low-income American families to help purchase food.
Because SNAP is federally funded, it is affected by the current government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 and reached its one-month mark on Oct. 31. No resolution has yet been reached to reopen the government or to secure temporary funding.
During the previous longest government shutdown, which was in 2018 and lasted 35 days, contingency funds were used to cover SNAP benefits. Initially this year, however, the federal government had said that contingency funds would not be used to make payments.
However, federal judges ruled against the government for not tapping into contingency funds on Oct. 31 and ordered the Trump administration to make partial payments.
Since then, in a turn of events, the administration has said on Nov. 3 that they would make payments, but that they would only be half of the original value.
The date these partial payments will be sent to families is still uncertain.
According to the most recent USDA data, SNAP supports more than 40 million individuals nationwide. Roughly 700,000 people in Tennessee are SNAP recipients, with almost a third being under 18.
Many states have already begun preparing for disruptions, but currently, Tennessee will not be using state dollars to fill in the loss of SNAP benefits this month, despite calls to do so from state legislators.
Tennesseans have taken the matters of feeding their neighbors into their own hands, with community organizations, churches and local food banks organizing emergency food drives and distribution events throughout the state.
Local food distributions can be found on FeedTN.org for those who may be struggling from the loss of SNAP benefits. The Governor’s Faith Based and Community Initiative and Tennessee Serves are both working to identify and inform Tennesseans facing food insecurity in the midst of the shutdown of resources.
With lawmakers in Congress still unable to reach a conclusion on the funding bill for the next year, the consequences continue to rise in severity.
As of today, Nov. 4, the current shutdown is just hours away from surpassing the record for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
