SNAP sign at Shaw’s supermarket in Montpelier on Oct. 28, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.
The Vermont Agency of Human Services has received new instructions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture about how to distribute federal emergency funding for November food assistance benefits.
State agency officials are still working to understand the new federal guidance. However, state-funded benefits for the first half of the month, approved last week by Vermont officials, will still be available for Vermonters on Friday, according to Ashley Roy, an agency spokesperson.
Funding sources for SNAP have been “very fluid,” Roy said in an emailed statement on behalf of the Department for Children and Families, which administers 3SquaresVT, Vermont’s version of SNAP.
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“DCF understands how difficult the uncertainty at this time is for Vermonters and will continue to update impacted households via calls and text as more information becomes available,” Roy said.
SNAP benefits, which are normally expected on the first of the month, had been paused by the USDA amid the federal shutdown.
The USDA indicated Monday in court filings that it would use $4.65 billion in contingency funding to distribute “50% of eligible households’ current (SNAP) allotments” for November. For Vermont, half of the monthly program cost would amount to roughly $6 million.
The announcement follows orders from two federal judges on Friday stating that the USDA must fund its largest food assistance program this month. One such order, from Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts, came as part of a multistate lawsuit joined last week by Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark. The suit sought a temporary restraining order against the federal government’s refusal to use emergency funds for the nutrition assistance program this month.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture is complying with the Court’s order and will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of SNAP contingency funds today,” Patrick A. Penn of the USDA wrote in a Monday court filing.
Penn said his department’s contingency fund will be exhausted after half of November benefits have been paid out nationwide. No new applicants for SNAP will receive funding this month, he added.
The USDA’s commitment comes after Vermont officials on the state’s Emergency Board approved a $6.5 million plan to fund food assistance for the first half of November, which included direct assistance to the Vermont Food Bank.
Sen. Andrew Perchlik, D/P-Washington, who sits on the Emergency Board as chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, agreed that federal promises have not yet resulted in clarity at the state level.
“We don’t really know what the feds are doing,” he said, adding that he agrees with sending out the state-funded food assistance as soon as possible. If the state funds half of November and the USDA covers the other half, that would be a “good outcome,” he said.
Penn said the USDA also considered using another source of discretionary funding to cover the rest of the month’s benefits, but determined that doing so would create an “unacceptable risk” for child nutrition programs backed by that pot of money.
Clark disagreed, pushing for full coverage of the program.
“I am disappointed by the USDA’s filing which fails to fully fund SNAP benefits,” she said in a Tuesday statement. “Partial benefits are not enough to keep food on the table this month — and by withholding full funding, the Trump Administration is choosing to let families go hungry.”
Statements from Washington added to confusion on Tuesday. After Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins stated that her agency would assist states in distributing the partial benefits, President Donald Trump said on social media Tuesday that SNAP would not be available until the government reopened.
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