Amid SNAP Benefit Woes, OC Students Needing School Meals Will Be Fed, Department Of Education Says

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — The administration of President Donald Trump said Monday it will partially fund SNAP/CalFresh in November as a result of court rulings requiring the government to keep the federal food assistance program running.

As of Monday afternoon, it remained unclear regarding how exactly the relief would be provided or when it would arrive, leaving more than 310,000 in Orange County without full CalFresh benefits for an unknown period of time.

CalFresh is the California version of the federal food assistance program also known as SNAP, commonly referred to as EBT or food stamps. The program is entirely federally funded, but is managed by states and administered by counties.

The funding gap does not affect free or reduced-price school meals, which will continue to be provided through national school lunch and breakfast programs. Students in Orange County public schools will continue to receive meals as usual, according to the Orange County Department of Education.

The Orange County Social Services Agency stated that November’s CalFresh benefits are expected to be issued retroactively once federal funding resumes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, had planned to freeze payments starting Nov. 1 due to the federal government shutdown.

On Friday, two federal judges separately instructed the USDA to begin using billions of dollars in contingency funding to maintain food assistance to needy families, despite the shutdown, and gave the agency until Monday to decide how to proceed. The program serves about one in eight Americans.

It's unclear exactly how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly they will see the value appear on the debit cards they use to purchase groceries. November payments have already been delayed for millions of people.

The administration said it would provide details to states on Monday regarding the calculation of the per-household partial benefit. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.

California and other states have boosted aid to food banks, and some are setting up systems to reload benefit cards with state taxpayer dollars. Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that California, along with over 20 other states, is suing the Trump administration over the administration's alleged unlawful refusal to fund SNAP benefits due to the nearly month-long federal government shutdown.

According to the lawsuit, under Trump, the USDA planned to "needlessly suspend November SNAP benefits," causing 5.5 million Californians to lose access to $1.1 billion in food assistance.

In Los Angeles, nearly 1.5 million people rely upon the SNAP benefits in order to eat. To fill the gap, Los Angeles County has partnered with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to host food giveaways for individuals who may be struggling to put food on the table.

Democrats and Republicans blame each other for the government shutdown, with Democrats refusing to vote on a budget bill without an extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to keep health care premiums down. However, Republicans refuse to budge on the matter, arguing that the healthcare issue can be debated later since the healthcare subsidies are in place until the end of the year.