Pennsylvanians won’t receive money for food assistance starting in November until the federal government ends a shutdown and releases funds, the state Department of Human Services said.
About 1.93 million Pennsylvanians are eligible for SNAP or the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps.
In Lackawanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties, 146,644 residents were eligible for SNAP as of September.
The pause in SNAP occurred as food prices continue to increase, more people are using food banks and state food programs are stalled by the Pennsylvania budget impasse.
On Friday, the state Department of Human Services said it would not make payments to nearly 2 million recipients through electronic benefit transfers, or EBTs, for November. The U.S. Department of Agriculture a week earlier advised states to delay EBT payments to about 42 million Americans.
“Now if in fact EBT benefits are not released, chances are those working families will be pushed toward the charitable food system already under stress,” said Jennifer Warabak, executive director of Commission on Economic Opportunity, which runs a regional food bank in four counties.
Without SNAP, Warbak said households, including working families and senior citizens, will struggle.
Food pantries are already helping more residents and can’t completely replace SNAP, which supplies nine meals for every one meal provided through a food pantry, according to Feeding America.
Even before the pause in SNAP, Warabak said visits to food pantries stocked by CEO’s Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank for the year ending in September were up by 17,000 compared with the previous year. Weinberg sends food to pantries that have 400,000 visits annually in Luzerne, Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties.
Schuylkill Community Action stocked up with food before the state budget stalemate started in July, said Jason Chally, the agency’s food network director.
The group serves 22 pantries that reach every municipality in Schuylkill County; on Monday, Chally was stopping at some of them to drop off cases provided federally through the Emergency Food Assistance Program
Earlier this month, Schuylkill Community Action learned that its regional food bank will sever distributions to 12 sites due to the state impasse and reductions in federal funding from July when Congress made changes to SNAP that affect benefits and work requirements.
Statewide, 1,933,752 Pennsylvania residents were eligible for $354 million in SNAP benefits in September. Average benefits by county were $178 in Luzerne, $181 in Lackawanna, $169 in Schuylkill and $165 in Carbon.
The effect on school meals is unclear.
When the federal shutdown began Oct. 1, Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Food and Nutrition sent a notice saying it had funding to pay all valid claims submitted through September.
“In the event the shutdown continues for an extended period of time, BFN will keep Child Nutrition Programs Sponsors apprised of new information,” according to the notice forwarded by business Manager Robert Krizansky of Hazleton Area School District.
Warabak said Weinberg is trying to get food to its pantries.
“Everytime we think we’re putting out a fire, a new one starts,” she said.
Chally said Schuylkill Community Action soon will have to decide whether to go “out on a limb” to obtain food before more funding is secured.
He’s grateful to residents who have made donations and warehouses, retailers and other businesses that have contributed excess food to the group.
“It begins with kindness: all the different ways we keep the pantries going,” he said.
Residents can donate to their food pantries online
Originally Published: October 20, 2025 at 4:16 PM EDT