Federal judge orders full funding for SNAP benefits after administration’s partial offer rejected | Pennsylvania News

A federal judge ruled late Thursday afternoon that the Trump Administration has one day to fully fund SNAP benefits for November.

The ruling is in response to the administration only offering to partially cover the benefits.

There are still questions about how quickly SNAP debit cards will be replenished.

It could take weeks. This is all happening while the record-long government shutdown continues to drag on.

This latest ruling comes after a challenge from cities and nonprofits that claimed the administration was only offering to covering 65 percent of the maximum benefit.

Meantime at the State Level, Governor Shapiro announced millions more dollars are on the way.

Governor Shapiro visited the Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank on Thursday, announcing 2 million dollars has been raised from private donations.

“These dollars go directly to the SNAP Emergency Relief Fund. And every single cent of that money raised go to feeding Pennsylvania which ends up in food banks just like this,” Governor Shapiro said.

Governor Shapiro says he refuses to let Pennsylvania families shoulder the burden alone.

“If you want to help out, you can contribute any amount to the SNAP emergency relief fund and those dollars, 100% of them, will make their way to hungry Pennsylvanians,” said Governor Shapiro.

The two million dollars, coupled with 5 million dollars released by the Governor last week, is helping local food banks like the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank.

“The challenge is, we don’t have the food we traditionally have because of the Government shutdown and because there is no Pennsylvania State Budget,” said Anne Egan of the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank.

The two million dollars announced by Governor Shapiro is just a drop in the bucket. Dawn Godshall, CEO of Community Action of Lehigh Valley, told us earlier this week that it would take 5 billion dollars to cover just half a month of SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans.

“So can you imagine families with children who have to send those children to bed hungry? That is the impact that this is having on our country,” Godshall said.

Shapiro is encouraging Pennsylvanians to support their neighbors by donating money or canned goods, or by volunteering their time to help food banks and pantries.

You can visit Feedingpa.org to learn how to donate or volunteer.