Editor’s note: Almost two hours after this article was posted on The Berkshire Edge, media outlets, including CNN, reported that US District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island has ordered the Trump administration to fully pay SNAP benefits. At press time on November 6, it is unclear if the Trump administration will comply with the ruling. Original article below:
Berkshire County — The effects of the federal government shutdown on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) continue, with food pantries seeing an increase in those seeking help as a result.
As of Thursday, November 6, the shutdown is in its 37th day, the longest in United States history.
President Donald J. Trump’s administration previously announced that, due to the shutdown, it would not provide states with funds for SNAP benefits for November. On October 31, however, two federal judges ruled that the administration must continue to fund SNAP.
President Trump announced via a November 4 post on Truth Social that his administration would not issue SNAP benefits despite the court order; however, the administration eventually walked back that announcement.
On Wednesday, November 5, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Under Secretary Patrick Penn announced that maximum SNAP allotments would be reduced by 35 percent instead of the 50 percent that was originally announced by the federal government.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance announced that the state would be able to issue partial November SNAP benefits sometime during the week of November 10.
The department’s website states:
Partial November SNAP benefits means that SNAP households will get some November SNAP benefits sent even though the federal government is still shut down.
The amount of SNAP benefits a household will get depends on household circumstances like household members, income, and expenses. Households with income will see the greatest reduction in their November SNAP benefits.
This will greatly reduce the amount of SNAP benefits that people will get, and will bring tens of thousands of SNAP clients benefits to zero.
Meanwhile, the political blame game for the cuts to benefits continues.
The USDA posted the following message on its SNAP website:
Senate Democrats have voted 14 times against reopening the government. This compromises not only SNAP, but farm programs, food inspection, animal and plant disease protection, rural development, and protecting federal lands. Senate Democrats are withholding services to the American people in exchange for healthcare for illegals, gender mutilation, and other unknown ‘leverage’ points.
In a press release issued on Tuesday, November 4, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey squarely blamed President Trump for the delays in funding SNAP:
President Trump is playing politics with people’s lives and their ability to feed their families, and it’s absolutely unacceptable.
The Trump administration has admitted that this funding is available right now, and instead Donald Trump is choosing to let veterans, children and seniors across Massachusetts and the country go hungry. He needs to follow the Court order and fund SNAP so people can feed their families.
According to Berkshire Bounty Executive Director Morgan Ovitsky, the crisis in SNAP funding has caused an “enormous surge” in those seeking help from food pantries in Berkshire County.
Berkshire Bounty operates in South County collecting donated food and purchasing additional food for food pantries and senior centers.
Ovitsky told The Berkshire Edge that earlier this week, as the SNAP funding crisis started, the organization put out a survey to Berkshire County food pantries to get a sense of their situations. She said that several food pantries in Pittsfield responded to that survey:
- Mercado De Vida, located at 119–133 Fenn Street, is seeing 30 to 45 new families every single day that the pantry is open;
- First United Methodist Church, located at 55 Fenn Street, is seeing 40 to 50 more families seeking help from their food pantry; and
- Pittsfield Community Food Pantry, located at 110 South Street, has seen 1,000 more individuals this week than they did last week.
“Despite what is happening right now, no one is being turned away,” Ovitsky said. “Food pantries all knew that this was coming, so they’ve been bracing for it. The Berkshire County community is bringing in a lot of food through food drives and donations. But what we are now seeing is that food pantries are starting to put limits on certain items. This has not been in place before for many of them.”
Ovitsky said the SNAP funding crisis is not only impacting food-insecure residents, but also Berkshire County farmers. “Many of these farmers are vendors at farmers’ markets, and SNAP sales are a large portion of their income,” she said. “They are nervous that shoppers are not going to be spending SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets as they start happening in the wintertime.”
Ovitsky said that as the SNAP funding crisis drags on, the amount of people seeking food assistance will continue to grow. “We know that SNAP is meant to be a supplement, but with reduced benefits or with no benefits, residents are going to have to find food through the Food Assistance Program,” she explained. “At Berkshire Bounty, we’ve taken a portion of our funding and directed it towards emergency response. We are going to be buying more food for these food pantries that are serving more people.”
Ovitsky said that even when full SNAP benefits are restored, the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the president signed into law on July 4, has changed the rules governing SNAP benefits. “There are now work rules for adults, and SNAP is ending eligibility for refugees, asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, domestic violence survivors, humanitarian parolees, and anyone who is an immigrant who does not have a legally protected status,” she said.
Ovitsky said the best ways to help food pantries through this crisis are to donate and, especially, to volunteer. “Many of these food pantries are staffed by volunteers that are going to be tired,” she explained. “Most of the volunteers that these pantries have are of the senior population, and they are kind of aging out of the type of work that we need them to do, including lifting heavy boxes and driving across the county at food pantries.”
Asked whether food pantries and food-assistance organizations can survive the SNAP funding crisis, Ovitsky said, “I do think we can go on.” “We weathered the pandemic storm, which was kind of an overnight surge,” she said. “This is more of a gradual surge. Speaking for Berkshire Bounty, we are listening a lot to the community and hearing their needs. We are doing what we need to do to respond to those needs. I know that many of the food pantries in Berkshire County are operated by selfless volunteers who are all there and ready to serve the community for as long as it takes.”
For more information about Berkshire Bounty, go to its website.
