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Massachusetts will continue to fully fund food benefits through the federal government shutdown, Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday, apparently ending a tumultuous stretch of uncertainty for the state’s highest-need households.
Food-insecure families in New Bedford and beyond experienced whiplash over the weekend after state governments and the Trump administration sparred over whether to fund food benefits during the federal shutdown. The Trump administration has repeatedly appealed to stop states from fully funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which nearly half of New Bedford households rely on for their monthly groceries.
Amid the flurry of court appeals and challenges, Healey announced that all SNAP funds had been restored as of Monday and urged SNAP recipients to keep using their benefits as normal. Recipients who have not yet received funding will see their balance restored on their normal refill date.
“My message to every SNAP recipient out there is this: Forget the noise that you’re hearing from Donald Trump.” Healey said in a press conference Monday. “Forget the noise about further appeals to the Supreme Court. I want you to know, because of the actions that we took, your SNAP benefits have been restored to your cards. Go out and buy the food that you need to feed your family.”
Over 1.1 million Massachusetts residents lost access to SNAP on Nov. 1, leaving local food pantries and nonprofits to fill in the gaps. One food pantry in New Bedford’s North End reported a nearly 100% increase in recipients in the weeks during and leading up to the funding freeze.
Healey announced on Friday that SNAP recipients could start using their cards as early as Saturday after a federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to restore the program. A day later, the USDA ordered states like Massachusetts that provided full benefits to “immediately undo” the actions or face financial penalties following a Supreme Court order to pause full funding.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced Monday that she had successfully blocked the USDA’s order in federal court, albeit temporarily. No matter the current legal situation, Healey reiterated that SNAP recipients in the state should continue to shop without fear.
“I can tell you that anybody who has been eligible to receive SNAP to date, or who missed their payments last week, has received their SNAP benefits now,” Healey said Monday. “Now we’ll continue to apply for and send out SNAP benefits as people become eligible over the coming days and months in the normal course. That’s how it works in the normal course.”
The ever-changing legal back-and-forth has also frustrated the local nonprofits tasked with serving affected households.
Coastal Foodshed is a nonprofit based in New Bedford devoted to helping SNAP recipients access the state Healthy Incentives Program (HIP). Under HIP, SNAP recipients can receive free, local produce through state-approved vendors. During the shutdown and funding freeze, Coastal Foodshed worked to alert families that they could still receive free fruits and vegetables under HIP as long as they had some amount of SNAP money left on their card.
In that time, co-executive director Stephanie Perks said the organization’s in-person market in the Kilburn Mill saw a 200% increase in foot traffic, and the nonprofit’s online market also saw a “significant increase” in new SNAP customers.
“If there’s a silver lining in all of this, it’s that more SNAP customers are becoming aware of HIP as we get the word out about this,” Perks said.
Coastal Foodshed SNAP Access Coordinator Maisy McVicar said that messaging through the past few weeks has proved challenging, especially since each household has access to different information in the social media age. Some families had no idea that SNAP funding was even being interrupted.
To prevent further confusion, McVicar said the organization declined to share out the latest updates and instead directed customers to the statewide nonprofit Project Bread for real-time information.
“There’s also a lack of trust in organizations, of what’s going to happen,” McVicar said. “I’ve been letting people know that we’re taking it day by day and we share the information as we know it, but not being able to guarantee anything is not the best.”
Shutdown may end soon, with a year of food aid funding
The U.S. Senate on Sunday secured support from enough Democrats on three year-long spending bills that could pave the way to reopening the government and approve a year of food aid funding.
The deal does not extend health care tax credits that are due to expire at the end of this year, but calls for a debate on that topic in December. U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren oppose the compromise because it does not extend the health tax credits.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the branch is processing a resolution to reopen the government and three year-long appropriations bills.
“These bills will fund SNAP for the entire fiscal year,” Thune said on the Senate floor Sunday.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday called on representatives to return to Washington, D.C. “right now.”
“At the very moment that [senators] do that final vote, I will call all House members to return to Washington as quickly as possible,” Johnson said of Senate action on the continuing resolution. “We’ll give a 36-hour formal and official notice so that we can vote as soon as possible.”
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
Alison Kuznitz of the State House News Service contributed reporting.
It’s pretty pathetic that able bodied people between 18 – 65 years old across America can’t, or won’t pay for their own grocery bills while tax payers fund their own needs, and are then over taxed to fund the needs of everyone else. And what’s even worse, they expect the working tax payers to fund their groceries, Medicaid/Mass Health, housing subsidies for them and their children forever is truly sickening already.
All aid for able bodied people should be cut completely!!!
Who gets to decide who is able bodied.
Is a 62 year old woman with with four disabled dependents able bodied?
Thank you Govenor Healey. 🙏
Time close the door on the worst governor in this state’s history, Maura Healey needs to be voted out of office.
Massachusetts US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey voted to continue the Democratic “Schumer Shutdown”. Their votes were to continue “leveraging” the financial lives of government employees, their families and government programs, including SNAP. Meanwhile, their salaries were paid in full.
This Democratic “Schumer Shutdown” created chaos and lost one full month of reasonable discussion on possible healthcare subsidies. Also, it created financial pain and animosity that will never really be forgotten by those hurt by their actions.
“Nearly half of New Bedford households depend on SNAP (Food Stamps)”.
This has to be one of the highest rates of SNAP dependence in the Commonwealth, if not the highest.
Is there any plan(s) to address this statistic or is it just an accepted way of life?