SNAP will be fully funded for the month of November, and Granite Staters who receive food assistance can expect to access their benefits on their Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT, cards this weekend, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
In a memo obtained by Politico, the Trump administration informed states on Friday that it is working to comply with a federal judge’s order to fund food stamp benefits during the government shutdown.
Federal food assistance is paid to states by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In New Hampshire, these benefits are then distributed to recipients by DHHS.
“Our state teams have worked tirelessly to ensure that people across New Hampshire receive their SNAP benefits as quickly as possible,” DHHS Commissioner Lori Weaver said in a statement. “Everyone deserves the peace of mind that comes with having enough to eat, and we will continue to help families access the food assistance they need to support their health and well-being.”
The fulfillment of November benefits will allow New Hampshire to phase out its contingency plan, a network of mobile food pantries and food box pick-up locations across the state that opened in collaboration with the New Hampshire Food Bank on Wednesday, Nov. 5.
Elsy Cipriani, the New Hampshire Food Bank’s executive director, told the Monitor she always understood the plan to be a temporary stop gap measure.
The $2 million in state funds appropriated to make the effort possible were not disbursed in a lump sum to the food bank but rather made available through a reimbursement model. The food bank will submit receipts to the state for its food purchases and likely won’t use the remaining funds, according to Cipriani.
“We were planning to reach 5,000 households every week across New Hampshire. That’s what we did the first week, and we were prepared to do more if it was needed,” she said.
The plan’s first week has been “very busy,” with food bank truck drivers needing to return to their warehouses to make a second round of deliveries to some food pantries and food box pick-up locations.
The food bank expects a “big delivery” will arrive on Monday, allowing it to continue supporting its member food pantries for the next two weeks, Cipriani said.
Advocates with New Hampshire Hunger Solutions celebrated the certainty of November SNAP benefits in an email to its network of hunger relief supporters.
“Thank you to all of you who have been working and advocating to keep people in New Hampshire fed,” the organization wrote. “This crisis shows how important SNAP benefits are to people in New Hampshire.”
