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Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday afternoon that eligible residents could start receiving full food benefits as soon as Saturday, after the federal shutdown and ensuing legal battle left over 1 million Massachusetts residents without them.
The announcement came shortly after the White House appealed a Rhode Island judge’s order to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Since the SNAP cutoff Nov. 1, South Coast residents have been working to fill in the gaps. A bank donated $100,000 to local nonprofits on Friday for food purchases and distribution, while food pantries continue to mobilize around ballooning demand.
“President Trump should never have put the American people in this position. Families shouldn’t have had to go hungry because their President chose to put politics over their lives,” Healey said in a statement Friday. “We are now getting these benefits out to families who desperately need them.”
Nearly half of New Bedford households lost access to SNAP this month after the Trump administration refused to fund the program during the ongoing federal shutdown.
After a federal judge in Massachusetts ordered the White House to use available emergency funds to restore the program, President Donald Trump agreed Monday to partially cover the cost, cutting benefits roughly in half. On Thursday, a federal judge in Rhode Island, John McConnell, ordered Trump to fully fund the program through November with unused funds set aside for child nutrition.
A federal appeals court Friday denied a Trump administration effort to block McConnell’s order, but later that night the Supreme Court temporarily paused the decision, allowing the Trump administration to make only partial payments while giving the appeals court more time to consider the case.
“Our scheduled SNAP payment went out [Saturday morning], so Massachusetts families who missed earlier payments should now have funds available on their cards ready to buy food,” Healey said Saturday. “We’re reviewing what the latest court ruling means for those expecting benefits next week.”
A state press release said recipients who have not yet missed their payment will receive their benefits on their typical schedule.
As a result of the freeze, New Bedford’s food pantries and meal assistance programs saw hundreds more customers per week, straining supplies and volunteer bandwidth.
On Thursday, the line for the weekly food pantry at St. Anthony of Padua Church in New Bedford’s North End stretched down the street and around the block. The pantry usually serves roughly 400 North End residents a week, volunteer pantry coordinator Stacie Hallal said, but in the past few weeks, that number has more than doubled.
“We’re up to 800 families a week every single week,” Hallal said Thursday morning. “A lot, a lot of new faces.”
Hallal put out a call to residents on the radio last weekend for more donations to keep up with demand. She said the pantry had received an outpouring of support from residents and local businesses — but she still worries whether it will be enough as the holiday season approaches.
“We’re just trying to do the best we can with what we have,” Hallal said. “That’s all we can do.”
To alleviate some of the pressure on the region’s food pantries, Bristol County Savings Bank announced Friday that it had awarded $100,000 in grants through its foundation to four local nonprofits addressing food insecurity. The bank donated $25,000 each to The United Way of Massachusetts Bay (Taunton-Attleboro), United Way of Greater New Bedford, United Way of Greater Fall River and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank in Providence. The donations will go toward food purchases and distribution.
BankFive in Fall River also announced Friday that its foundation had committed $10,000 in total to 10 local food banks in Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts, and Cape Cod.
For SNAP recipients like Nereida Pino, food pantries provide the last lifeline for weekly groceries. A North End retiree living alone, Pino relied on her monthly SNAP allotment for all of her meals and was among the hundreds of New Bedford residents lined up outside St. Anthony of Padua Church on a brisk Thursday morning. Although she lived down the block from the pantry, this was her first time waiting in line.
“Of course I’m worried,” Pino said in Spanish. “I don’t have anything to eat.”
In line with Pino was her daughter, Aleyda Jimenez, who flew in from Texas to support her through the shutdown.
“She has seven children, so we’re all pooling together to help,” Jimenez said. “But we’re struggling, too, and the more we give to her, the less we have for ourselves.”
Jimenez on Friday said she was grateful to hear that SNAP funds would resume shortly.
“It’s a big relief,” she said.
Nonprofit People Acting in Community Endeavors (PACE) runs a grocery-style food pantry five days a week. Ahead of the shutdown, PACE Health and Food Access Director Brooke L’Etoile said demand had already risen by roughly 100 new visitors each day. In recent days, L’Etoile said the pantry has taken on more volunteers to meet demand and continues to solicit donations.
“We will still need continuous donations to keep with the need, especially as the holidays are approaching,” L’Etoile said in an email Friday. “Every donation big or small makes a difference and helps keep our community fed.”
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Nov. 8, 2025, to add details about the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily block a lower court’s ruling.
Thank goodness for SNAP benefits ! Compare our country with the WHO for healthcare, senior benefits, education for our children ? Life longevity ?
We are losing ground compared to so many other countries. Look it up.
And wonder why. Both political parties are tone-deaf and responsible for where we are now.
In case you didn’t know, the US federal government doesn’t exist to provide anyone with food, clothing, housing, utilities, or anything else they want or need for themselves or their children, it’s not a charity.
Responsible adults with dignity don’t expect the federal and state tax payers to meet their needs, we work for a living, and we’re sick and tired of paying higher taxes while others sit at home without a care in the world, and having more children that they can’t afford to feed, house, and clothe, those people should be working to provide for themselves!
Why does it exist then? To take my taxes and transfer them to Raytheon?
After the pandemic WHO can’t be trusted and the only reason people want to come here is for what our country provides. The United States is still the best country on the planet.
How can a county qualify as the best when there are lines around the block at food pantries and a shadow war being waged in South America without congressional oversight, while we’re minting trillionaires? I believe that we have the potential to be the best, but nothing that’s happened in the last two and half decades has convinced me we’re moving in that direction.
Pick a country and go if that is the way you feel.
The negative comments left by some people are getting to be so old and tired. I find them hateful and judgmental, and, frankly, quite ignorant.
How dare anyone judge another’s situation. To assume that SNAP recipients are all lazy n’er-do-wells, who do nothing but sit back waiting for a “government handout” and who are “owed nothing ”by their government only demonstrates ill-informed understanding of how our safety net system works.
People who thought like this were also critical of Social Security, Workman’s Comp, and other programs created to make sure that working folks didn’t end up in poor farms.
How many of those critics are beneficiaries today of these
programs, have elderly parents, disabled family members whose lives rely on such help.
The haters have bought into the stereotyping that has been around for generations, instead of taking the time to research real statistics on who exactly receives this assistance.
Of course there is fraud in every system, but that does not justify withholding food from the vast majority of deserving people.
My parents used to remind us, “There but by the grace of God, go I,” “Before you judge [a person], walk a mile in his shoes.”
Most of us are only a paycheck away from needing government assistance, and I suggest that you put your energy into being grateful for what you have because circumstances can change in a heartbeat.
I speak from personal experience and thank God every day for the blessings I have.
Political alignment creates different opinions and you may think some of the comments are unfair and hateful, but everyone has a the right to their opinion. I will agree with you that their are people in need of assistance, but facts show government assistance is way out of control, abuse is so rampant, and people are still taking advantage of the system.