The Trump administration has repeatedly said it can’t use roughly $6 billion in emergency funding to send partial payments to families on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The program costs about $8 billion each month.
Two courts ordered the administration to release those funds. The judges also asked officials to use other reserves to send full payments to families.
Kiera Condon with the Montana Food Bank Network says partial benefits would still be helpful.
“It’d be a little bit easier for us to try and fill that gap. Then we’re not having to make up for a family’s entire grocery budget for the month,” she says.
SNAP helps roughly 77,000 Montanans buy food. Food banks and communities have been scrambling to collect more food to feed those families.
Condon says she wouldn’t be surprised if the Trump administration appealed the ruling. Even if it doesn’t, she still expects November payments to be delayed.
