Two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to pay out SNAP benefits, but they're not yet on EBT cards.
In Rhode Island, Governor Dan McKee and Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos joined the ELISHA Project in Pawtucket Friday to help prepare around ten-thousand-pounds of donated produce for families that rely on the benefits.
“In the absence of November SNAP benefits, there is an urgent need for food assistance in Rhode Island right now,” said Governor McKee. “While the State has put strategies in place to provide $6 million to support more than 20,000 Rhode Island families with children and additional funds to strengthen food access for others, we rely on the ingenuity of r4 and the generosity of all Rhode Islanders to help their neighbors.”
In Rhode Island, the cost of the federally-funded SNAP program is $29 million each month to provide grocery money for more than 140,000 Rhode Islanders.
“While it is heartening to see our communities step up to feed their neighbors, the national crisis could have been avoided if the Trump Administration had chosen to release billions of dollars in contingency funding intended to address a food emergency,” Governor McKee noted. He added that while today’s court rulings are encouraging, it’s still uncertain when families will actually see relief and in what amount.
The food is made possible through a collaboration between r4 Technologies which identifies surplus food at U.S. seaports and the nonprofit Sharing Excess that delivers it to community organizations.
Meantime, The White House is expected to tell a Rhode Island federal judge how it plans to reinstate some benefits during the shutdown.
(Photo: Rhode Island Governor's Office)