All SNAP recipients in New Hampshire have received their full November benefits, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, bringing to an end more than a week of uncertainty regarding the status of the food assistance program during the government shutdown.
“Please know all New Hampshire SNAP recipients have received the full November SNAP benefit allotment on their EBT cards. This was based on the most up-to-date federal guidance available, received by the USDA on Friday afternoon,” a DHHS representative wrote in an email to an advocacy organization obtained by the Monitor.
On Friday, DHHS announced that SNAP benefits would be fully funded for the month of November and that Granite Staters who receive food assistance could expect to access their benefits on their Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT, cards over the weekend.
That evening, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to hold off on issuing SNAP payments until its appeal of a federal judge’s orders to issue those payments had been resolved.
The series of rulings, handed down by a federal judge in Rhode Island, instructed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The Trump administration’s appeal of these orders was being reviewed by a federal appeals court in Boston, which had not immediately intervened. Until that court made its decision, the Trump administration had the Supreme Court’s permission to halt SNAP payments.
The high court’s decision thrust SNAP recipients and hunger relief advocates into a new, unexpected phase of confusion. It was unclear what the decision would mean for SNAP recipients in New Hampshire, who had been told to expect their benefits to land.
In a memo obtained by Politico, the Trump administration informed states on Friday that it was 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 on Friday, before the Supreme Court granted the Trump Administration’s emergency request. “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.”
Ultimately, by Saturday afternoon, all SNAP recipients in New Hampshire had received their full November benefits.
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.
Before the Supreme Court’s decision, 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.”
