Berkshire County — Although the federal government curtailed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on November 1, the Trump administration announced November 3 that it would partially reinstate those payments for November. SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget, and the stoppage was the result of the federal government shutdown forcing the freeze of such payments.
The November 3 decision follows an October 31 ruling by two federal judges in separate cases and opinions—Rhode Island and Massachusetts—that the administration “must continue to fund SNAP … using [the program’s] contingency funds during the government shutdown.” However, that ruling “gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program partially or in full for November,” with the program’s administrator, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), choosing the former.
The funding will only partially fill the SNAP benefits allocation for the month of November, with individual states left to find out “how much SNAP funding they will get and when it will be made available,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey stated in a November 3 news release.
The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance will provide information to SNAP recipients as soon as possible, and more information can be found here.
According to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, the contingency funds allocated will cover half of the SNAP benefits needed. Although the Rhode Island federal judge ordered the USDA to find other funding sources should the contingency monies be insufficient to fully fund the November payments, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell stated the agency is refusing to use other funding sources this month to constitute a full payout.
Last month, Campbell was among 26 state attorneys general who sued the Trump administration for withholding SNAP benefits.
About 16 percent of the Commonwealth’s population, or about 1.1 million residents, receive SNAP. Healey said that state payments to food banks would double for November, taking those funds from $4 million monthly to $8 million monthly.
“Families should never have been put through this, and it shouldn’t have taken a Court order to force President Trump to feed American families like every president before him,” said Healey in the release.
For Berkshire County, that news may not be enough to quell the nerves of local SNAP recipients.
According to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, 45 percent of Berkshire County residents are food insecure, an 86 percent increase in the area’s food insecurity rate since 2021, with more than 22,000 children and adults within the region who stand to lose their SNAP benefits.
“While it’s good news, it’s not great news because SNAP benefits, as it is, are limited for a family to meet their basic needs,” Berkshire Bounty Executive Director Morgan Ovitsky told The Berkshire Edge. The agency provides food—donated and purchased—to the food-assistance network, including food pantries, so they can meet the needs of those seeking assistance. “We do think that the dollar amount that is allotted will still create barriers to access, it will still create a greater number of people seeking food,” Ovitsky said.
On November 1, the first day that SNAP benefits were stopped, Ovitsky said local food pantries reported “lines out the door” and “double the amount of people they typically have.” “It’s not clear how much of that is the fear and anxiety, and how much of that is, literally, people don’t have the funds to purchase anything,” she said. “Despite the SNAP crisis, food insecurity itself is extraordinarily high. Any donations, any volunteers are still needed, even if everything is ‘status quo.’”
Berkshire Bounty is accepting donations, staffing volunteers, and offering assistance. Volunteers can go to Berkshire Bounty’s website, and click the “Volunteer” and “Registration” tabs. For those in need of food, program eligibility and resource information can also be found at that website.
