The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services says SNAP benefits will be paid out in full this month, after a week in which the program was stalled due to the government shutdown.
In a statement late Friday, the health department said SNAP enrollees will get benefits on their EBT cards as soon as this weekend. The move to re-instate SNAP comes a day after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to pay out November benefits amid the shutdown, but it was unclear when or how that would happen, and the Trump administration is appealing that order.
It follows a week of confusion, stress and hunger for many residents and food pantries across New Hampshire. The state had put $2 million towards a stop-gap plan to fund SNAP-only food assistance via a partnership with the New Hampshire Food Bank that began this week.
That first week without federal food assistance hit hard across New Hampshire, with pantries and residents across the state reporting soaring demand. Even before the SNAP pause went into effect, advocates and enrollees have been saying this plan would be only a Band-Aid, at a moment when the cost of living is already a struggle for many people.
“That's not even scratching the surface,” said Jane Goodman, who leads the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter, in the days leading up to Nov. 1. “So we're going to try our best to at least give them a little bit of relief.”
The North Country has the highest rates of food insecurity in the state. At the Food Bank's first SNAP-only distribution site in the area — in Berlin — food was flying off the shelves Friday morning. Demand far exceeded the food bank's expectations and they ran out of pre-packed boxes and fresh produce within just hours of opening. They started giving people food from their storage, intended for future use.
Anthony Belmonte of Milan said it has been hectic figuring out how to feed his family, including his two children and his sister, who is diabetic.
“I've had to go to food pantries; I've had to call the hospitals; I've even had to ask managers of supermarkets, because sometimes a lot of the stuff they get rid of, it's still good,” he said.
He said if the pause on his food benefits continues, he'll start hunting again to provide for his family.
Michael Goulden of Berlin picked up food for himself and his daughter Friday morning. He says he's relying on lots of sources of help to feed his family.
“I'm selling a few things and doing whatever I can do to get by, you know, neighbors help neighbors,” he said.
SNAP, which allows people to shop at grocery stores and pay with an EBT card similar to a debit card, lets people choose where they get their groceries. But, with food assistance concentrated at a handful of food pantries and soup kitchens over the past week, accessing this relief presented a challenge for many, especially in the rural North Country and among SNAP enrollees, who are more likely to be elderly or disabled.
Lois Merwin, a volunteer with the Littleton Food Pantry, said this has been a concern for some clients.
“Just this morning, I had someone call about the Thanksgiving baskets that we are doing,” she said. “People need to come in here . . . and so when I mentioned that they were concerned that they didn't have transportation.”
The state’s contingency plan over the past week limited food assistance to people who are enrolled in SNAP, but those aren’t the only people struggling financially right now. Many federal workers have been without paychecks for weeks and this is particularly a problem on the Seacoast, which has a high concentration of federal facilities, like the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Jamie Swan, who helps lead the Community Action Partnership of Strafford County, said demand has more than quadrupled in recent weeks.
"The majority of [federal employees] are still working,” she said. “So they're still having expenses. They still have gas that they need to get to work every day. Some of them have children in child care. . . . We're just trying to help in any way we can.”
