Despite a federal judge on Friday ordering the Trump administration to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the continuing federal government shutdown, the Arkansas Department of Human Services is still bracing for interruptions to the program, which gives food benefits to more than 240,000 Arkansans.

Even if SNAP funding keeps flowing next week, several other federally funded programs at DHS could be suspended due to the shutdown, including the Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA) program and some federal block grant funding for community organizations. DHS Director Janet Mann said Friday that the agency must furlough 34 employees if a resolution isn’t reached before this weekend.

If the shutdown continues through the end of next week, Mann warned, another 1,500 Arkansas DHS workers could be furloughed and local DHS offices would close in every county in the state.

Mann said at a press conference Friday that beneficiaries in Arkansas should continue to prepare for disruptions or delays in SNAP benefits.

“We are aware that at least one federal judge and maybe two federal judges have recently ordered the federal government to pay the benefits out of emergency funds. This order has just come down, and we will await guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services to determine if and how it impacts our state,” Mann said. “At this time, we are continuing to advise our beneficiaries to prepare for a disruption or delay in SNAP benefits, and we will provide additional guidance as soon as we receive it.”

The federal shutdown hit day 30 on Friday and is likely to continue into next week. Funding for SNAP was set to run dry by tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 1, which would leave tens of millions of Americans without benefits they rely on to put food on the table. A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration on Friday to pay the benefits using emergency funds set aside by Congress. The ruling came within an hour of a Massachusetts federal judge ordering the Trump administration to announce whether it would be fully or partially funding SNAP through November by next Monday. 

In a press release Friday, DHS said SNAP beneficiaries will in fact be able to keep using any saved benefits from previous months. The agency had previously recommended that people use up any unspent benefits before the end of October out of concerns that EBT, the electronic system used for the disbursement of SNAP and other assistance programs, might not keep working in November.

“It now appears that the EBT system will remain operational to spend saved benefits in November,” the agency said. 

In addition to the uncertainty surrounding SNAP, the press release also detailed furloughs and suspensions in several federally funded programs:

• Funds administered to community partners through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), and Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) programs will be suspended, and partner agencies will be directed to cease services reliant on federal funding provided through DHS and to hold all invoices. This includes funds that support programs within the Arkansas Department of Education, Area Agencies on Aging, Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, the Arkansas Spinal Cord Commission, Community Action Agencies, the Division of Services for the Blind, and multiple TANF subgrantees. 
• 34 additional employees within the DHS Office of Payment Integrity, the Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services, and the Division of County Operations will also be placed on furlough due to a lapse in funding. These furloughs are in addition to 37 employees within the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance who have been furloughed since the beginning of the shutdown, and who remain furloughed now. 
• Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA)/Work Pays cash assistance programs will be suspended for newly approved beneficiaries.

If the shutdown continues through Nov. 7, DHS will have to furlough 1,500 employees across the state and close its county offices to the public, Mann said. Those furloughed employees would be workers with the Division of County Operations, the branch of DHS that runs the agency’s local offices. 

Some local staff would remain to process Medicaid applications and renewals, the press release said, since Medicaid is funded through the end of 2026.

“This will be painful for our beneficiaries we serve, and we regret that we have been placed in this position,” Mann said. “It will also be painful for the hundreds of employees within our agency who will not be paid for as long as the shutdown continues.” 

Gov. Sarah Sanders announced Friday morning that the state would send $500,000 to the six food banks across Arkansas on Monday, though the money doesn’t nearly make up the funding shortfall facing DHS. According to the health policy nonprofit KFF, the federal government sent Arkansas more than $521 million in SNAP funds in the 2024 fiscal year, which works out to an average of about $10 million per week.

“We are grateful for the $500,000 aid that Governor Sanders announced today to the six regional food banks that serve our entire state, and we encourage individuals to visit helparkansas.com if they need assistance or would like to contribute,” Mann said. 

Mann said she expects staff to return to work when the shutdown ends, but there’s no timeline for when that may happen. 

“When we’ve had this in the past, [when] funds have been restored everyone has come back to work,” Mann said. “And so that is our hope, that this will happen again, but until they reopen I just don’t have those facts.”

At one point during the press conference, Mann became visibly emotional while discussing the potential disruption of SNAP benefits. 

“We serve one in three Arkansans in the state and they’re gonna — they could go hungry. It hurts,” Mann said.