Judges rule Trump admin must fund food assistance program but it’s unclear when payments will be made
Two federal judges ruled today that the Trump administration must fund a food assistance program that provides a vital lifeline to 42 million people across the nation, including 30,000 low-income residents of Humboldt County, during the government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced over the weekend that payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, would be suspended as of Nov. 1.
It was not immediately clear whether the rulings would be appealed. And, even if that doesn’t happen, when any funds will be released, meaning recipients are all but guaranteed to see a delay in the electronic payments made to prepaid cards for recipients to purchase food at participating stores and farmers markets due to the process involved.
The Trump administration had argued it could not use contingency funds for the program.
According to the Washington Post, U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, issued an oral ruling in a case brought by cities, small businesses, nonprofits and workers’ rights organizations that requires the USDA to make the funds available “timely, or as soon as possible, for the November 1 payments to be made.”
“There is no doubt — and it is beyond argument — that irreparable harm will begin to occur, if it hasn’t already occurred in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family,” the paper quoted McConnell as saying at the hearing. “That irreparable harm will occur if this injunction does not pass and if SNAP benefits are not paid consistent with the mandate from Congress.”
Another U.S. District judge in Boston, Massachusetts, directed the Trump administration to “advise the court whether they will authorize at least reduced SNAP benefits for November and, if so, their timeline for determining whether to authorize only reduced SNAP benefits using the Contingency Funds or to authorize full SNAP benefits using both the Contingency Funds and additional available funds” no later than Monday.
In the case brought by California and more than 20 other states on Tuesday, Judge Indira Talwani wrote that the administration’s “suspension of SNAP payments was based on the erroneous conclusion that the Contingency Funds could not be used to ensure continuation of SNAP payments.”
“This court has now clarified that Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program,” Talwani wrote, noting that “while these contingency funds reportedly are insufficient to cover the entire cost of SNAP for November” the administration may “supplement” these monies “to avoid any reductions.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a statement today noting the courts’ rulings.
“The Trump administration knows that it has a legal duty to fund SNAP benefits, even during the current government shutdown. In fact, just last month, the USDA admitted as much in a document that it later deleted from its website,” Bonta said. “SNAP benefits provide an essential hunger safety net to an average of 5.5 million Californians each month. Simply put, the stakes could not be higher. The Trump administration must move expeditiously to fund November SNAP benefits.”
PREVIOUSLY:
Starting this week, thousands of North Coast residents already living on the financial brink are facing the prospect of going without the federal assistance they depend on to put food on the table.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Agriculture posted a notice on its website stating monthly payments for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will not go out Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.
“Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the highly partisan USDA message reads, blaming Democratic senators for suspension of the hunger prevention program that dates back to the Great Depression and serves 42 million across the nation, many of those children and the elderly.
Democrats in Congress have requested the government use contingency funds to allow payments to keep flowing but, according to media reports, the Trump administration has refused, citing as a reason that those monies are meant for emergencies like natural disasters.
Warnings of an impending halt in the benefits have been circulating for weeks.
In an Oct. 16 release, the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, which helps local low-income residents access the program known as CalFresh in California, noted staff was working to provide information on resources, including food banks, recipients can access during a funding pause.
“It is daunting knowing we soon may not be able to provide services to the folks who depend on us,” Director Connie Beck said.
As of June, 20,000 Humboldt County low-income households, encompassing 30,000 individuals, receive CalFresh benefits, according to the California Department of Social Services, with children and the elderly making up nearly 63 percent of recipients in the state.
And, as the shutdown barrels toward becoming the longest in history, it’s unclear when those payments will resume, leaving nearly one in four people in Humboldt without a financial lifeline to help cover basics like milk, eggs, bread and produce.
Meanwhile, Food for People is preparing to do what it can to help fill the gaping void.
In a recent interview, Director of Programs Deb Waxman said the nonprofit has already ordered extra food and was in “strategizing mode” on how to stretch the capacity of their programs, including the food pantries dotted across the county.
“I think we are in a little bit of a quiet before the storm, but we are seeing an uptick,” she said last week, adding the food bank doesn’t know “what kind of influx we are going to see.”
But, Waxman noted, the reality on the ground — and something those who work in the food assistance field have been saying for “years and years” — is “food banks cannot tackle hunger alone.”
“We really need that food safety net. There’s no way we can make up for the loss of SNAP or CalFresh at this magnitude,” she said, encouraging community members to see this as “an all-hands-on-deck moment” and asking those who are able to do “anything you can do to help your friends and neighbors,” navigate the unprecedented situation.
“We don’t want anyone to be turned away or left out,” she said.
The sheer number of people — 30,000 in Humboldt, 5.5 million in California and 42 million across the nation — who will no longer be able to afford a trip to the grocery store, Waxman said, “puts knots in my stomach and keeps me up at night.”
“It’s going to take so many strategies to get us through this,” she said.
The abrupt halt in the electronic payments made to a prepaid card that can be used at participating stores and farmers markets to purchase food comes amid wider confusion over changes in eligibility starting next year due to the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Not to mention the simple facts that grocery prices keep going up and the holiday season is just around the corner.
“It’s just a lot to digest and make sense of,” Waxman said. “I think it’s going to come in waves, as people realize.”
As uncertainty swirls around what happens next and what’s coming down the pike, Waxman said there are several things for people to be aware of, including that CalFresh recipients can still use remaining funds on their card when the payments stop, that those looking to enroll should keep applying and those in the program should keep up with reports and recertification to keep their cases active.
And for those looking to donate to Food for People, “now is the time,” Development Director David Reed said, noting “any amount helps.” While monetary contributions are especially helpful because of the nonprofit’s bulk buying power, people can also donate food items.
In addition to those losing CalFresh benefits, non-military federal employees in the community are going without paychecks at the same time, Reed said.
“We know we are seeing some of those people already,” he said, adding some of those workers have also come on as volunteers.
While the food bank is seeing locals stepping up to help, even with that generosity, “it’s going to take more people in our circle,” Reed said, echoing Waxman’s call for community members to do what they can directly to help those in need, whether that’s purchasing groceries for a neighbor who’s struggling to make ends meet or sharing produce from their garden.
That, Reed said, will help take some of the pressure off not just Food for People but other hunger prevention organizations in the community.
On Tuesday, as the Journal was going to press, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced California and more than 20 other states are suing the Trump administration for its “unlawful refusal to fund SNAP benefits due to the nearly month-long federal government shutdown, despite possessing funds to support SNAP in November.”
The action comes on the heels of the governor moving to fast track up to $80 million in funds to help shore up food banks across the state and sending out the National Guard to help with food distribution in response to the benefit delays.
The latter, Reed noted, is not likely to occur in Humboldt “unless something changes dramatically.”
Even before the situation surrounding CalFresh benefits and furloughs for federal workers began unfolding, the county’s largest food bank, serving 21,000 clients a month, was already working to weather cuts by the Trump administration.
That includes the shuttering of a program that was providing Food for People with about $360,000 a year to purchase produce from area farms through the North Coast Growers Association’s Harvest Hub. The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement program not only provided thousands of pounds of produce each month but supported local producers.
During a Hunger Town Hall hosted by state Sen. Mike McGuire in early October, Executive Director Carly Robbins said the end of that program and other cuts have resulted in Food for People losing approximately $850,000 in funding this year alone, or 11 percent of its budget.
“Thankfully, our community has been showing up, they have seen the cuts and they have been making the calls to see how they can help,” she said. “I’m hopeful that will continue for the next couple of years as we wade through this uncertainty, but the reality is the federal supports that we get and our clients get through programs like SNAP are massive. … Food banks cannot make up for what SNAP provides to folks for food assistance. That is just way beyond the capacity that we have throughout the entire network.”
Waxman said sometimes people have a certain person in mind when they think about who visits a food bank or receives assistance like CalFresh. They are, she said, children and the elderly and people who are working but need a little help to make it through each month.
“This is going to impact every type of person you cross paths with in Humboldt,” she said.
Find more information on Food for People at foodforpeople.org.
Kimberly Wear is the Journal’s assistant editor. Reach her at (707) 442-1400 or kim@northcoastjournal.com.
This article appears in Halloween.
Leave a comment