About 42 million Americans will lose their food benefits from November 1 because of the government shutdown.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (Snap) helps low-income families buy groceries. It is relied upon by one in eight Americans.
Eligible families use an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card much like an ordinary debit card to purchase food. They are usually reloaded by the federal government at the beginning of every month. But on Saturday, this might not happen.
UPDATE: Judges order Trump admin to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP benefits with cutoff Saturday
A pair of federal judges ruled Friday that the Trump administration must use emergency funding to restore at least some SNAP food benefits — one day before the US Department of Agriculture had warned money for the program would run out due to the ongoing government shutdown.
The judges in Boston and Providence, RI, both said that the USDA could decide whether to fund the entitlement commonly known as food stamps in full or in part for the month of November — but a full cutoff was unlawful.
