Healey: Mass. ready to go on SNAP benefits
With 1.1 million people in the Bay State waiting for aid, Massachusetts state officials will load electronic benefit cards for SNAP recipients as soon as the federal government makes the money available, Gov. Maura Healey said Monday.
"When they release the funds, the state will quickly work to load the cards that people have," the Democratic governor said as she left an event at Boston's Old South Meeting House. "That does take a couple of days to do so."
"We know because of President Trump's freezing of these SNAP benefits, we're already going to be delayed in getting these cards loaded and getting benefits out the door to people," Healey continued. "But I can tell you our team is ready to go as soon as this funding is released."
The Trump administration said Monday that it would partially fund SNAP after federal judges in Boston and Rhode Island last week ordered it to keep the program running.
It was not immediately clear how much people would receive or when they would receive it, according to published reports .
The SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps, lapsed over the weekend, leaving some 42 million people nationwide to scramble to put food on the table heading into a new week.
"President Trump made a choice not to fund SNAP," Healey said, noting that 25 states, including Massachusetts, had taken the Republican administration to court to force it to release contingency funds to keep SNAP up and running during the federal government shutdown.
"I spent the weekend at food pantries," Healey said. "I just want to say that I'm so grateful to the people of Massachusetts who have donated, who have shown up with both food and financial support."
Last week, Healey's office announced that it was advancing the state's regional food banks an additional $4 million in monthly payments they already were set to receive to keep assistance flowing.
While that money is helpful, it doesn't come close to the $240 million a month in federal money the state receives for the SNAP program.
"We're going to continue to do the very best we can to take care of people here, but it is absolutely the case that we cannot continue this way with the president not funding SNAP," Healey said, adding that it was a "shame that so many states like ours had to take [Trump] to court to have that order when he was required to release those contingency funds."
More on Politics
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
