In an 11th-hour ruling, two federal judges ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration cannot stop food aid for millions of low-income Americans during the ongoing government shutdown and must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits, which end on Saturday, Nov. 1

Shortly after the court’s decisions on Oct. 31, Trump said on social media that the federal government likely lacks legal authority to require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pay for benefits provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps.

“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,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. What that means for SNAP recipients in November remains unclear.

More: Millions rely on SNAP for access to healthy food. How to find help or donate if you can.

If the government were open, some 3 million recipients would receive their benefits on Saturday, according to an estimate by Code for America, as first reported by CNN. Over 13 million people by the second week of November, with remaining SNAP enrollees receiving their funds on a staggered basis throughout the month.

With SNAP funds ending on Saturday, Nov. 1, here’s what you need to know.

How many people are on food stamps in the United States?

According to the USDA, more than 42 million people across 22 million households relied on SNAP benefits during the 2025 fiscal year.

That figure accounts for about 12% of the total U.S. population of 342 million people.

More: Who will be impacted by food stamps running out? SNAP recipients by the numbers.

How many children rely on food stamps? How many adults?

According to the USDA’s fiscal year 2023 report on the SNAP program, the latest annual data show that the largest age group receiving benefits was adults ages 18 to 59.

However, children accounted for about 39% of the people who received the benefits, according to the data.

WIC and school lunches could be affected

SNAP is the largest food assistance program in the country, accounting for about 70% of USDA’s nutrition assistance spending in fiscal year 2024, according to the agency.

However, there are also many other food assistance programs run by the government, such as:

• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides services for at-risk children under 5 years old, as well as for pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women.

  • According to the USDA, WIC served about 6.7 million participants each month in fiscal year 2024, including an estimated 41% of all infants in the United States.

• The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides low-cost or free lunches to children.

  • According to the USDA, NSLP provided more than 4.8 billion lunches in fiscal year 2024.

The impacts of the government shutdown on programs like WIC, NSLP and the many others backed by the government vary depending on the program.

Where to donate

Those interested in donating to people in need, be sure to check with your local food bank to find out what it needs. There are also several online resources fundraising for food banks and SNAP recipients.

• Through Instacart’s Community Carts program, you can donate directly to your local food banks by selecting a facility and then the items you want to send. Click here to donate.

• Propel, an app many SNAP recipients use to manage their benefits, is running a fundraiser through GiveDirectly. Funds will be distributed to families directly through the Propel app. Click here to donate.

• Feeding America works with food banks nationwide. Click here to donate.

Contributors: USA TODAY’s Zac Anderson, Joey Garrison, Bart Jansen, Zachary Schermele, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Sarah Wire and N’dea Yancey-Bragg; Reuters

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is affected as SNAP benefits end on Saturday, Nov. 1?

The ongoing budget deadlock in the United States is threatening food security of around 42 million Americans who receive food stamps at the start of each month to help get by.

The US Department of Agriculture had said that no money could be paid out on Saturday due to the shutdown.

But on Friday, a federal judge helped ease some of the uncertainty at the last minute by ordering the government to use emergency funds to ensure the continuity of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which has helped low-income Americans for more than 60 years.

The idea that SNAP assistance could be paused is "truly unprecedented," Meredith Niles, a professor specializing in food policy at the University of Vermont, told AFP.

"This has never happened in more than 50 years of the program, despite numerous other government shutdowns," she said.

Here's how SNAP works, and what its absence could mean for those affected.

- How does it work?

While food stamps date back to the 1930s during the Great Depression, the SNAP program was created in 1964 and expanded nationwide in 1974, according to Niles from the University of Vermont.

Today, around one-in-eight Americans receive SNAP benefits each month based on income, according to the Department of Agriculture.

This costs the federal budget nearly $100 billion.

Beneficiaries have a payment card, similar to a debit card, which they can use in supermarkets, grocery stores, and some farmers' markets. The cards are usually reloaded automatically on the first day of the month.

To qualify for SNAP, along with being low-income, recipients must meet certain requirements -- which can vary from working at least 30 hours a week to being medically deemed unable to work due to disability.

"It is an important program for many Americans," Niles said, adding that recipients receive an average of around $6 per person day.

Every day items like fruit, vegetables, canned goods, chips, and pasta are covered by SNAP, while alcohol and pre-prepared meals are not.

From January 2026, around ten states also plan to exclude the purchase of soft drinks using SNAP vouchers.

- Impact of SNAP pause -

Nationwide, around nine percent of grocery purchases are paid for using SNAP, according to Niles, with a quarter of all purchases using the vouchers made at the retail giant Walmart.

"We're talking about billions and billions of dollars that aren't going to be in the economy," if SNAP payments are frozen in future, she added.

If SNAP payments are halted, Niles said she expects people will try to compensate by dipping into their savings, skipping meals, or deferring other expenses like repaying loans or attending medical appointments.

The prolonged U.S. government shutdown is putting millions of Americans at risk of missing their November food stamp benefits, a vital lifeline for low-income households.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, stated in a memo on Sunday that no benefits will be issued on Nov. 1, leaving the program's roughly 42 million beneficiaries uncertain about how they'll pay for groceries next month.

SNAP recipients receive an average of $187 a month on a prepaid card, and many families rely on those benefits as their main source of money for food. Many of those registered with the program are asking if they will still be able to use the remaining dollars on their cards once funding is suspended and if they'll receive their November benefits retroactively, should lawmakers reach a deal to reopen the government.

A stoppage in SNAP payments on Nov. 1 isn't guaranteed. Two federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled on Friday, Oct. 31, that the Trump administration is required by law to use contingency funds to pay at least partial SNAP benefits.

The government must respond by Monday on whether it plans to allocate money to continue payments.

With just days to go before a potential suspension in SNAP funding, here's what to know.

Will current SNAP benefits roll over to November?

While SNAP benefits will not be disbursed as scheduled in November, program recipients can use existing funds on their EBT cards to make purchases. If someone enrolled in the program hasn't spent all their October EBT dollars, for example, those benefits would roll over into November.

Some states are advising recipients to use their remaining food stamps wisely, given the stalemate over funding the federal government.

"If you have remaining balances from previous months, we encourage you to plan your shopping carefully and purchase essential food items when needed," Hawaii's Department of Human Services said on its website.

Will SNAP recipients get paid retroactively for missed payments?

The USDA hasn't indicated whether SNAP benefits would be paid retroactively once the government shutdown ends.

But social service experts who spoke with CBS News said they expect the USDA to pay the delayed November benefits once federal funding resumes.

"It is our understanding that SNAP benefits will be issued retroactively when the shutdown ends," said Lizbeth Ginsburg, a managing attorney in the welfare law unit at Greater Boston Legal Services.

As the partial government shutdown extends into day two with no end in sight, more federally funded agencies are turning to contingency plans to keep lights on and doors open for the millions of Americans who rely on their services.

While some programs are guaranteed continued funding, such as Social Security, others face greater uncertainty as Congress and the White House continue to spar over a budget. Programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) rely on cooperation between states and the federal government, which, during a shutdown, may not have the personnel or funds to keep things moving.

SNAP benefits are allocated a month in advance, meaning October will look no different for people who rely on the program. However, in the face of an extended shutdown, the process could soon get complicated.

Here's what to know about the government shutdown and SNAP.

What is SNAP?

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, sometimes known as "food stamps," is a U.S. federal program designed to help low-income individuals and families afford nutritious food. It provides monthly benefits via an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, which works like a debit card that can be used to buy groceries at authorized retailers, including supermarkets and convenience stores.

In 2024, SNAP was used by a monthly average of 41.7 million people, or about 12.3% of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

What happens to SNAP during a government shutdown?

The USDA, which oversees SNAP and similar programs through its Food and Nutrition Service division, has a contingency plan to maintain its core services during a government shutdown, at least temporarily.

Funds for October's SNAP benefits were allocated before the month began, meaning payments are already being processed and distributed as usual. If the shutdown lasts longer, USDA could tap into multiyear contingency funds that can be used for administrative expenses and/or to pay participant benefits directly, according to the USDA plan. It is unclear how much money is currently available in that reserve.

These measures are a temporary means of keeping FNS running, however. Existing continuing resolutions, or temporary funding measures, generally only allow the USDA to disburse benefits 30 days after a shutdown begins, and funding can run out. If the shutdown lasts beyond October, it could exhaust the USDA's contingency plan, and the administration could choose not to tap into the multiyear fund, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Food Research & Action Center.

The shutdown is nearing the longest in U.S. history as Americans begin to feel its real impacts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The crises at the heart of the government shutdown fight in Washington were coming to a head Saturday as the federal food assistance program faced delays and millions of Americans were set to see a dramatic rise in their health insurance bills.

The impacts on basic needs — food and medical care — underscored how the impasse is hitting homes across the United States. Plans by the Trump administration to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Saturday were halted by federal judges, but the delay in payouts will still likely leave millions of people short on their grocery bills.

It all added to the strain on the country, with a month of missed paychecks for federal workers and growing air travel delays. The shutdown is already the second longest in history and entered its second month on Saturday,.

“This is more than a crisis,” said the Rev. John Udo-Okon, who runs the Word of Life Christian Fellowship International food pantry in the Bronx, where hundreds more people than usual lined up in the New York City borough as early as 4 a.m. Saturday to collect groceries. “Right now, you can see the desperation, you can feel the frustration that the people are going through."

But back in Washington, there was little urgency to end the government funding impasse. Lawmakers are away from Capitol Hill and both parties are entrenched in their positions.

The House has not met for legislative business in more than six weeks, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., closed his chamber for the weekend after bipartisan talks failed to achieve significant progress.

Thune said he is hoping “the pressure starts to intensify, and the consequences of keeping the government shut down become even more real for everybody that they will express, hopefully new interest in trying to come up with a path forward.”

The stalemate appears increasingly unsustainable as Republican President Donald Trump demands action and Democratic leaders warn that an uproar over rising health insurance costs will force Congress to act.

“This weekend, Americans face a health care crisis unprecedented in modern times,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said this week.

Delays and uncertainty around SNAP

The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold $8 billion needed for payments to the food program starting on Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to make them. Trump said he would provide the money but wanted more legal direction from the court.

On Saturday, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell in Rhode Island ordered that the government needed to tell the court by Monday how it would fund SNAP accounts. McConnell, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, said the Trump administration needed to either make a full payment by Monday, or if it decides to only tap $3 billion in a contingency fund, figure out how to do that by Wednesday.

The federal government shutdown has entered its fourth week and is now threatening one of the nation’s most widely used assistance programs.

According to USA Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will stop going out on Nov. 1 if lawmakers do not reach a deal to reopen the government.

The shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 following a congressional impasse over funding and healthcare policy, is now the second-longest in U.S. history, with hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed and just as many others working without pay, as

AFROTECH

previously reported.

Agencies that rely on annual appropriations are running low on resources. The USDA confirmed that SNAP, which provides food assistance to more than 40 million Americans, has exhausted its budget for November and cannot legally draw from emergency disaster funds to cover regular monthly benefits. And even if it could use some of these funds, it could only supplement, not cover the entirety of regular benefits.

The department said no payments will be issued if the shutdown continues, warning that states will not be reimbursed if they use their own funds to keep benefits flowing, USA Today reported in a previous article. The update signals a growing crisis for millions of low-income families who could lose access to food assistance within days.

Several states, including Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, and California, have warned they may not be able to distribute benefits without new federal funding, according to Business Insider. Meanwhile, governors in Louisiana and Virginia, as Reuters reports, have declared states of emergency to release state-level hunger relief funds while waiting for federal action.

Food banks and community organizations across the country are also preparing for higher demand though they are already stretching to keep up with demand due to increased grocery prices, according to Time. The outlet notes that national hunger relief groups warn that families who depend on SNAP benefits could soon turn to emergency food pantries if payments are paused due to the government shutdown.

While SNAP faces immediate challenges, mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare continue to operate, though federal employees across multiple agencies are still going without pay, USA Today notes. Congress remains divided on funding, with Democrats seeking to extend health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and Republicans pursuing a spending bill without additional provisions.