The roughly 66,000 Alaskans who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, did not get their November benefits Saturday as scheduled, despite a pair of court rulings ordering the Trump administration to reverse a freeze on the federal dollars that fund the program.
When benefits arrive, they’ll likely be less than recipients expected. The Trump administration told the courts following the ruling it expected to pay only half of recipients’ typical SNAP benefits. The administration plans to tap a roughly $5 billion contingency fund to continue benefits during the ongoing government shutdown, far less than the $8 billion monthly cost of operating the program. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN over the weekend the Trump administration did not plan to appeal the rulings.
The Alaska Department of Health said in a statement that as of Friday afternoon, it had not received funding for November’s SNAP benefits. Department of Health spokesperson Shirley Sakaye said Friday the department was monitoring legal developments and would distribute payments to SNAP beneficiaries “as quickly as possible once they are received.”
“There are still several unknowns,” she said. “This is the first time the Department of Health (DOH) has been required to temporarily suppress the transmission of SNAP benefits. Once the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) issues final guidance, DOH will immediately release the benefits to our EBT contractor, FIS, so they can be loaded onto recipients’ cards.”
Meanwhile, Rachael Miller with the Food Bank of Alaska said she expected more Alaskans to turn to local food pantries to fill the gap.
"If you don't have access to that benefit, people are going to look for the next best resource, which usually, if they have one, is their local food pantry," she said in a phone interview. "You want to make sure you have some stocks and food on the shelf. You want to make sure you have, you know, whatever little cushion you can build for yourselves in this pretty uncertain time."
Miller said the government shutdown and the storms in Western Alaska have already put pressure on the state’s food banks. The food pantries her group supplies have reported significant increases in traffic with federal workers missing paychecks and the threat of a gap in SNAP benefits adds additional stress, she said.
“I think that Alaska feels pretty stretched thin right now in multiple crisis responses,” she said.
The Democrat-heavy bipartisan state House majorityurged Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy to explore ways to ensure Alaskans don't go hungry in a letter on Friday, noting that several other states had provided emergency funding to food banks and SNAP beneficiaries.
In an appearance on the Mike Porcaro Show on Friday, Dunleavy said the state was not equipped to fill the gap. Even if the Legislature called itself into special session and appropriated money to address the gap in benefits, he said it would take weeks for the money to flow to SNAP recipients. He called on U.S. Senate Democrats to approve a measure that would temporarily reopen the government.
“The easiest, simplest solution is for eight Democrats to vote for this bill so we can end the shutdown, and people can get their SNAP benefits, Essential Air Service, et cetera,” he said. “Then they can argue over whatever their differences are.”
Democrats have said they will not vote to reopen the government without an extension to pandemic-era health insurance subsidies for small business owners and others who purchase coverage on marketplaces like Healthcare.gov.
Savannah Lee, a single mother of a one-year-old and a SNAP beneficiary in Anchorage, said she had spent the last several days stressing about having enough food through November. She said news of the court rulings ordering the funding unfrozen was encouraging, but she said she remained cautious.
"I don't really believe anything until it actually happens,” she said by phone. “But, that does mean that Thanksgiving could happen.”
Editor's note: This story was updated at 11 a.m. Monday with additional developments.
