For over a month, more than one million Massachusetts residents have been facing uncertainty between a record-breaking government shutdown and a new spending plan. The cost could be their next trip to the grocery store.
As a cleaner, Norma Velasquez of Lowell, Massachusetts, said her salary alone is not enough to cover all her bills. Velasquez is the sole source of income in her household, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are vital for putting food on the table for her and her family. Recently, she said she got a message “saying that they took it away.”
She said she has seen this happen to others, noting instances where people in Market Basket would fill their carts with food only to leave them behind.
“I see their sad faces as they leave their food behind because their card doesn’t go through,” she said. “I imagine if the same thing happens next month, a lot of people are gonna collapse.”
Velasquez is among millions of SNAP recipients who are now caught in a lengthy legal battle amid the longest government shutdown in history, which has lasted 42 days as of Nov. 11th. At the same time, they are facing changes in eligibility due to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, a law codifying the president’s second-term tax and spending plans, which, alongside shutdown funding shortages, threatens the stability of the 41.7 million Americans who receive SNAP every month.
On Oct. 24, the Trump administration informed states that it would not tap into its reserve of nearly $5 billion to provide even partial benefits under SNAP, which normally costs about $8 billion per month. States stopped the process of issuing benefits for November after receiving a letter from the USDA requiring them to do so.
“It felt like a slap in the face,” said Velasquez. She said this stoppage has heavily limited her family, who are already struggling amid rising grocery costs.
One organization leading the charge against the stoppage is Project Bread, a group that helps Massachusetts residents find free meals, locate emergency food programs, and access other federal nutrition programs.
The organization held a rally on Oct. 28 to send a message to both federal and state leaders: act now to ensure that November SNAP benefits are issued on time and in full to more than 655,000 low-income Massachusetts households.
“The motivation behind the rally was simple but critical: hunger cannot wait,” Erin McAleer, the CEO of Project Bread, wrote in a statement to The Beacon. She added that nearly 70% of SNAP households live below the federal poverty level, making even a week’s delay put a strain on families and the emergency food system.
During the rally, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced a joint lawsuit against the federal government from Democratic leaders across 25 states to continue the benefits.
“Despite having the money to fund SNAP, the Trump Administration is creating needless fear, angst, and harm for millions of families and their children,” Campbell said in a press release. “It is past time for the Trump Administration to act to help, rather than harm, those who rely on our government.”
The administration responded to the lawsuit, stating that they would use an emergency fund to partially fund SNAP, but would not use any additional funds, noting that it was up to Congress to appropriate the funds for the program.
Although the federal government funds SNAP, it is individual states that distribute it to eligible residents. This has confused both recipients and officials over who can receive benefits or not.
Governor Maura Healey and many other political figures attended the Greater Boston Food Bank’s 20th annual Chain of Giving event on Thursday. At the event, the bank had its biggest crowd yet, passing about 1,200 turkeys into the food bank to be distributed to more than 351 locations across the state. The goal: to encourage residents to donate money or time to local food banks.
Healey argued against the partial funding, saying that some people in Massachusetts would not receive any benefits, and others would only get half the amount, according to The Boston Globe.
Catherine D’Amato, president of the food bank, told The Boston Herald at the event that the organization has seen a 26% increase in demand at pantries since the start of November.
There have also been changes to SNAP eligibility, an uncertainty that has followed the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill. The bill cuts nearly 20% from the federal budget for SNAP through 2034, eliminating access for refugees and other immigrants in the country lawfully, expanding work requirements, and reducing benefit amounts.
“What I think is they need to do a more thorough investigation of who really uses SNAP for food, and who isn’t using it [for food],” Velasquez said in response to the cuts, referring to the roughly 4% of SNAP recipients who are not U.S. citizens.
More than 150,000 Massachusetts residents will see their benefits reduced or cancelled due to the bill. The change was expected to take effect when the law was signed in July, but states are still awaiting federal guidance on when and how to implement the measures. The administration suspended the release of a key report that regularly measures food insecurity among all U.S. households, making it harder to understand the impact of the SNAP cuts.
Many businesses across Massachusetts have been taking steps to help the community afford groceries amid the pause, including Neighborhood Produce in Somerville. The grocery store is running a sale on various items and canned goods at both of its locations. Customers can donate purchased grocery items while the store donates its “damaged and imperfect foods.”
Matt Grey, the owner, used to work for businesses that addressed food insecurity. He told The Beacon that the store has always had a history of donating and helping support different food insecurity and food rescue organizations.
“Given that food prices continue to rise, and that some folks won’t have access to some of those funds that they have had before, it made sense to us to try to help alleviate that,” he said.
On Oct. 31, a federal court order rejected the Trump administration’s decision to cover only 65% of the maximum monthly benefit, requiring the government to provide full benefits. This prompted states to begin releasing SNAP benefits, with Gov. Healey ordering SNAP benefits to be processed in full immediately.
Just three hours before the White House had to pay for the benefits in full, the Supreme Court granted the administration’s emergency request to delay the payments until an appeals court could fully weigh in on the matter.
Late on Nov. 8, the Agriculture Department issued a memo that demanded state leaders to “immediately undo” any action that provides full food stamp benefits, under threat of imposing harsh financial penalties on states that did not quickly comply. The next night, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit again ruled against the Trump administration.
This has forced the Trump administration to say they would return to the Supreme Court once again early Monday, the same day a federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked the administration’s demand that states take back full benefits.
But late Monday, the Senate passed a bill with the help of eight Democratic defectors to end the government shutdown. The bill does not include the health insurance subsidies Democrats long required. The earliest the House will vote is Wednesday. The expectation is that once Congress can appropriate SNAP funding for the fiscal year, the benefits will be restored.
As there is no current precedent for anything like this, recipients and state leaders are again at a loss for how to proceed from all the back and forth, with many recipients still in danger from the bill.
“This is not a problem confined to any one group—it affects our entire community. When families struggle to afford groceries, it impacts schools, local businesses, health systems, and the broader economy,” McAleer wrote. “Ending hunger requires the collective voice and action of all of us.”
