Two federal judges on Friday ordered the Trump administration to tap emergency funds to cover federal food assistance through November, despite an ongoing government shutdown.
But it’s still unclear when hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans will be able to access their benefits or if the program will be fully funded for the next month.
More than 440,000 Minnesotans rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for groceries, according to the state. More than 180,000 are children, about 67,000 are seniors, and 52,000 are people with disabilities.
Recipients receive new funds on a card each month, but the federal government shutdown would have frozen those payments for November.
Judges in Boston and Rhode Island ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use a contingency fund of about $5 billion to fund SNAP across the country, following two lawsuits, including one by two dozen Democratic-led states, including Minnesota.
According to a news release from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office, $5 billion is not enough to fund SNAP for the month of November.
A federal judge in Boston found that USDA has additional funds it can tap into to fully fund the program, and ordered the department to decide by Monday “whether and how it will use that additional fund to continue to provide benefits throughout November,” the news release says.
Tikki Brown, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families, told Sahan Journal on Friday that it’s too early to tell when Minnesotans will receive their SNAP benefits and if the program will be fully funded. Minnesota typically distributes SNAP funding starting on the fourth of the month. But it’s not known at this time if the state will have any money to send on that date.
“While we’re incredibly happy about this ruling, we are also awaiting additional information,” she said. “I think there are several layers that need to be put in place before the benefits can be released.”
Funds that Minnesotans may still have on their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards from October are expected to still be available for them to spend. But at a rate of $6 a day, Brown said many people on the program do not carry over funds month to month.
Brown said the past month has been full of uncertainty and concern for those that rely on the program. “It is incredibly concerning, and turns everything upside down for families that rely on this,” she said.
The Department of Youth, Children and Families will continue to share updates on SNAP on its website.
In the meantime, Brown said those on SNAP benefits will have to lean on food shelves, which are already strained.
State prepares emergency funding
Last year, Minnesota food shelves saw a record 9 million visits, The Food Group reported, many from seniors and families with children.
Food shelves and food banks say they have been working on “COVID-style, rapid response” solutions to continue to serve Minnesotans at a time of already high need. And even as they put resources together, they’re aware that there’s only so much they can do to fill in the gap.
Earlier this week, Gov. Tim Walz announced $4 million in emergency funding for food shelves across the state. Three hundred food shelves are expected to receive the funds, according to the state Department of Children, Youth and Families. Walz warned that the emergency money is nowhere near the more than $70 million in SNAP benefits that are issued in Minnesota each month.
Brown said that each food shelf will receive a base of $5,000 in emergency funds, and those that have a higher demand and serve more people on SNAP benefits will receive additional funds.
“It’s a short-term solution, but long-term, we just need the shutdown to end and benefits to get out to recipients on their normal schedule as quickly as possible,” Brown said.
Sophia Lenarz-Coy, the executive director of The Food Group, a nonprofit food bank that serves 200 food shelves in Minnesota, agrees. While the $4 million is helpful, “It just pales in comparison to this $70 million benefit deficit.”
The food bank has brought in “truckloads of staples” like beans, rice, vegetable oil, tuna, etc., to respond to the increased need from its partner food shelves, and is working with the state to administer the emergency funds to food shelves.
Second Harvest Heartland, a food bank that serves 41 counties across the state has also been amping up its efforts. In an email to Sahan Journal, the food bank shared that it is increasing its food sourcing and will deliver 30% more food to its partner food shelves, along with putting together emergency food boxes, and pop-up food distributions.
Stretched beyond capacity
But food banks and food shelves are a supplement in the food assistance program which is largely reliant on federal funding. For every meal a food shelf provides, SNAP can provide nine. Many food shelves are forced to stretch beyond capacity to meet the need of the moment.
This summer, Georgi Nguyen, director of basic needs at Keystone Family Services, told Sahan Journal that the organization is bracing for how many people it will have to turn away once food supplies run out, following federal cuts to food assistance programs and tighter SNAP restrictions. The day came earlier than Nguyen had anticipated.
Keystone has since seen a sharp increase in the number of visitors every day. “We’re reaching our maximum capacity more regularly on a daily basis. And on top of that, we’re having to turn away additional visitors to the food shelf because we’ve reached our capacity.”
They have expanded their open hours, mobile food shelf locations, and distribution sites. Nguyen said that depending on how long the shutdown and the suspension of services lasts, they might have to consider pulling back on the variety of products to make sure they are still able to serve people the staples.
Nguyen has been in conversation with directors of other food shelves to come up with a shared plan of action. “It is a we’re-all-in-this-together effort because we know that we’re all pulling from the same resources,” she said. “We’re all serving individuals with great need and learning from each other for best practices.”
Michelle Ness, executive director of the marketplace food shelf PRISM is leading that effort while expanding the capacity at which the food shelf can serve the community. They are buying more food, doing more food drives, and engaging their volunteer base. “We’re spending more than we budgeted,” Ness said. “Food shelves honestly cannot absorb this heightened level [of need].”
SNAP benefits have income eligibility requirements which leaves a significant portion of food insecure Minnesotans who don’t qualify for SNAP behind. This is also a population food shelves serve. “I think some of those people right now are saying, ‘Well, what about us? We don’t even qualify, and we are struggling,’” said Ness.
Crisis funds, emergency response programs
Greater Twin Cities United Way reported 82% more calls on its resource helpline for food-related requests. The organization, which works with multiple food shelves and food banks on multiyear projects, has been pulling all its resources together, including putting together food donations based on need, giving small grants to food shelves, and advocating for the restoration of SNAP benefits.
“We’re collectively all in this, whether we acknowledge it or not,” said Shannon Smith Jones, senior vice president of community impact at Greater Twin Cities United Way. “We’ve been in unprecedented times for five years, and each moment is a new surprise, and so there is something around having to be this quick pivot that I see folks are way more poised to shift and adjust than I think we were five years ago.”
The impact goes beyond families dependent on SNAP for their groceries. It will also be felt in Minnesota’s small producers, first generation, BIPOC-owned and women-owned farms.
“When we see these programs, especially things like SNAP or multiplier programs like market bucks threatened, those are real dollars that would otherwise go to our local farms,” said Theresa Schneider McCormick, executive director of The Good Acre which works with 150 local farm partners to connect them with food banks, health organizations, and schools. “SNAP is a vital lifeline for everybody in our community, and should be there for everybody in our community, farmers included.”
Schneider McCormick added that as a response to the crisis, The Good Acre is fundraising to sustain and strengthen its Farm to Hunger Relief program through which it buys produce from farmers and donates to hunger relief programs.
Lenarz-Coy agrees that it feels like the kind of emergency response they put together during COVID. But, “What’s difficult about this particular crisis is that it’s a manufactured crisis,” she said. “As a country that has the resources, this is an entitlement program. It is our job to stand by this benefit.”
While food shelves and food banks scramble to put together crisis funds and emergency response programs, many also say that repeated hits to the food assistance program take energy and resources away from solving food insecurity in the long term. “The system, while not perfect, was good enough, but this good enough system is kind of taking hit after hit,” said Lenarz-Coy.
Local businesses also step up
As the Nov. 1 deadline to freeze SNAP benefits approached, local businesses also stepped in.
Arya Cafe, which serves Ethiopian-inspired coffee drinks in south Minneapolis, began serving as a community collection hub to take in nonperishable food items that will be shared with local food distribution resources such as the Minnehaha Food Shelf which is in the same neighborhood. The cafe has committed to taking in donated food for the remainder of the month.
Since Arya Cafe has been in business, business strategy partner Asia Mohamed says they’ve been committed to serving neighbors in need — no matter if their visit to the cafe is for coffee.
“On a daily basis, we consistently see individuals that come into Arya to use the bathrooms, ask for a drink [and] water. Arya has a fund that everyone pours into, [we] don’t deny them anything,” Mohamed said.
Arya Cafe is partnering with a neighboring restaurant to collect and distribute food.
Mary Slater and her husband and business partner Tenzin Dechen own Asian Duck Cafe and have been at their location directly across the street from Arya since last summer. As young parents, the couple relied on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
“We needed that [WIC] to get to where we are. For us to be able to have a platform as we do today, it’s important for us to make sure we give back to the community that supports us,” Slater said.
Asian Duck Cafe will drop off the fresh bread that is left over every day to Arya Cafe in November. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 2 and 4 p.m., families can come to the cafe for free fried rice. Slater and Dechen also intend to provide gift cards for local businesses.
“We might not have a lot of money, but we have a lot of heart,” Slater said.
Both cafes plan to partner with other community organizations throughout the month to amplify the community collection hub.
