Ordinarily, Danielle Andrews’ SNAP money for November would have shown up on her EBT card on Wednesday, allowing her to buy food for herself and her two children.
“I just checked ... and it was not there,” the West Wareham resident said. “So [I’m] just kind of waiting and hoping.”
State officials now say some federal food assistance, which has been held up as a result of the government shutdown, is expected to be restored in a limited form beginning next week. It’s still unclear how much money recipients can expect to receive.
But for Andrews and the more than one million Massachusetts residents who rely on SNAP, the interruption of that assistance is taking its toll.
“My pantry is getting low,” she said. “It’s getting scary. And this is only day one.”
Andrews is a single mother with 15-year-old twins — one of whom is autistic, nonverbal and homebound. Those demands, she said, leave her mostly unable to leave her house and reliant on SNAP to help feed her family.
“The reason why they have SNAP is for people that cannot work, you know, whether it’s elderly, disabled or caring for the disabled like I am,” Andrews said. “I would love to work and have everything work out and have my son be set with everything he needs. But right now at this point, I don’t have the option to do that.”
A court order last week requires the federal government to fund the program. In an email to food organizations Wednesday morning, Allison Bovell-Ammon, the state’s Assistant Undersecretary for Children & Family Services, said that the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance will send “partial SNAP benefits” to recipients next week.
“USDA has agreed only to send out partial benefits to families in need,” she wrote in the email. “USDA has cut the maximum SNAP benefits by 50% for November, which will have a devastating impact on households that are struggling to afford food.”
Bovell-Ammon cautioned that SNAP recipients shouldn’t automatically assume they’ll be receiving half of their usual benefit.
“Cutting the maximum benefit in half creates a compounding effect on the benefit calculation that will leave many families receiving far less than half of their normal benefits, and some with no benefits at all,” she wrote.
A representative for the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance didn’t immediately respond to questions about the changing benefit amounts.
Erin McAleer, president and CEO of the nonprofit Project Bread, said the Trump administration is deliberately complicating the distribution of SNAP benefits.
“There is so much chaos, so much confusion,” McAleer said. “USDA is not giving clarity to [the] state in order to fulfill what they’re able to do. And it’s just so unnecessary. And that’s the part that’s really breaking me. There’s no hurricane, there’s no earthquake, there is no global pandemic. This is all policy and politics and a decision to play with people’s basic right, their basic need of food.”
In a social media post Wednesday, President Donald Trump contradicted his own administration’s commitment to abide by the court order, saying SNAP benefits would only be paid once the government shutdown ended. The White House press secretary then walked that back.
On Wednesday, Gov. Maura Healey criticized the president for those comments. She also described confused messaging coming from the federal government in a memo the state received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the SNAP program.
“The memo said, ‘Here’s the guidance we want you to use for SNAP distributions.’ It was so convoluted and messed up, I think intentionally so, because they are … seeming to find every which way to deny relief to Americans,” Healey said to reporters. “That is what is going on with this federal government. It’s all the more reason people need to get back to Washington and reopen government.”
For Andrews, getting some SNAP funds would be helpful. But at a reduced rate, she said she’ll be struggling to get by.
“No, it won’t be enough,” she said. “It hasn’t been enough before, you know?”
Beyond the government shutdown, she’s also worried about other permanent cuts to SNAP and safety net programs that she relies on to support her family.
“It’s not really about Democrats and Republicans,” she said. “I feel it’s more ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and what’s right for the American people. And what’s happening right now definitely doesn’t feel right, you know, with a lot of the suffering and the unknown. It can be really scary.”
