SNAP benefits paid in San Diego before Supreme Court halted nationwide funding

UPDATED: This story has been updated to reflect developments in the Trump administration’s efforts to fight the SNAP payouts in the federal courts.

After a court ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to pay out November federal food assistance benefits in full Thursday, funds were fully disbursed to recipients in the San Diego region before the Supreme Court put the order on hold. 

The funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, weren’t paid out on Nov. 1 as usual because of the ongoing government shutdown, raising questions about when San Diego County’s 400,000 recipients would receive the benefits. 

Also known as CalFresh in California, SNAP helps people with low incomes buy groceries. About 240,000 San Diego households receive CalFresh benefits, which were worth $75 million in June, the last month of available data.

The order from the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island to fully fund SNAP came as a result of a lawsuit by California and 22 other states. The Trump administration has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that it lacked the legal authority to pay out SNAP and that it wouldn’t tap emergency funds. The Supreme Court put the lower court order on hold while it considers the case, leaving some states having only partially disbursed benefits and others having not issued them at all. 

On Saturday, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a directive telling states including California that paying out full SNAP benefits was unauthorized and that they must take steps to “undo” the payments, reversing course from a Friday directive saying that the agency was working on fully disbursing funds. 

California and other states filed a restraining order Sunday asking the court to prohibit USDA from penalizing states that issued full benefits. 

“The Trump administration’s cruelty knows no bounds, and they continue to go all out to make sure American families starve,” Spokesperson Tara Gallegos for California Governor Gavin Newsom said. 

While the SNAP disbursal provides some relief, the government shutdown is not over and “the need in our community continues,” San Diego Food Bank Director of Communications Arika Daniels said. “Many individuals, such as TSA employees, are about to miss another paycheck, adding strain to household budgets and increasing demand for food assistance.”

The court order follows a tense week for food assistance providers. Brigitte Wesselink, the vice president of operations at the San Diego Food Bank, said that calls to 2-1-1, a nonprofit call line that helps connect people to resources, asking about food assistance nearly tripled in volume, in particular in Chula Vista, El Cajon and City Heights. 

Food distributors have been reaching out and asking for help handling increased demand. 

“We had one partner reach out just yesterday saying that they had a thousand people additional people show up in what they’re used to,” she said. “Frequently they’ve been running out of food.”

At an event to announce $3 million in emergency food funds by the local philanthropic initiative United For San Diego to fill the gap, providers said the shutdown is driving even more need as San Diego’s large government workforce misses paychecks. 

Robert Kamensky, CEO of Feeding San Diego, listed several unexpected groups “looking for food insecurity provisioning to see families through.” They include TSA airport security personnel, military families at Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps groups and Murphy Canyon Airport Authority personnel.”

There is no end in sight for the government shutdown. But when it does end, a quarter of San Diego’s SNAP recipients could lose benefits as new eligibility requirements from the federal spending bill passed in July known as the “Big, Beautiful Bill” kick in.