Courts Order $6B Emergency SNAP Funds

The government shutdown threatened to pause SNAP benefits beginning Nov. 1 after the Trump administration initially declined to use roughly $6 billion in emergency funds. Federal judges ordered those emergency funds be used to pay November benefits, but it remains unclear when recipients will actually receive payments. That uncertainty has driven record turnout and rising need at food pantries nationwide — for example, Spokane’s Salvation Army is seeing roughly 170 families per day and Eastern Kentucky’s Hazel Green Food Project serves about 2,000 households monthly. State and local leaders have taken limited steps (Washington pledged about $2.2 million per week to food banks), yet many communities still face gaps. Nonprofits, schools, restaurants and businesses from Spokane to Cambridge, Austin and Jacksonville have mounted emergency food drives and free-meal programs, but pantry operators warn donation-dependent efforts are under strain amid rising costs and limited government support. Organizers and officials are urgently calling for donations and coordinated local action while legal and administrative questions over SNAP funding and distribution are resolved.