“Hunger should never be used as a political weapon.”

This story was originally published in Rhode Island Current, a publication partner of Ocean State Stories.

CRANSTON — Rhode Island’s four Democratic congressional delegates demanded that the Trump administration release funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits during a 40-minute late morning press conference Monday in Cranston.

If they had stayed for just four more minutes, they would have received the news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed to comply with a court order to partially fund SNAP for the month of November.

But U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse were off to Washington D.C. where the Senate was set to resume at 3 p.m. after a weekend recess. U.S. Reps. Gabe Amo and Seth Magaziner remained in Rhode Island — though both noted they have returned to D.C. on a weekly basis despite the House not meeting since the shutdown began Oct. 1.

At 11:59 a.m., the USDA submitted a four-page report responding to an order from U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. to force the Trump administration to pay at least a portion of benefits to the 42 million people who receive SNAP benefits by the end of Wednesday, despite the government shutdown.

“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 by generating the table required for states to calculate the benefits available for each eligible household in that state,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in the Trump administration’s court filing submitted one minute before the administration’s noon deadline.

Rhode Island receives about $29 million each month to administer the SNAP program across the state. Food pantries around Rhode Island are seeing increased demand as SNAP recipients prepared for the first lapse in benefit payments in the program’s history. Food drives have been organized by labor unions, local nonprofits, and advocacy organizations to support the RI Community Food Bank and food pantries across the Ocean State. 

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Community Center in Newport saw a 34% increase in people using its food pantry in the month of October compared to September, according to its email newsletter.

“Trump can move very fast when he wants to,” Amo had told a half dozen reporters inside the office of the National Education Association of Rhode Island headquarters on Bald Hill Road in Cranston. “So why can’t he find the time to work on behalf of the hardworking Americans who make this country what it is?”

McConnell on Saturday gave the Trump administration two choices after ruling it must use available funds to keep food aid flowing: Cover partial benefits through a $5.5 billion contingency fund or find other reserves, or to pay for a full month tapping into additional revenue sources such as the Child Nutrition Program.

The USDA opted for the latter, stating in an attached declaration that officials determined child nutrition funds “must remain available to protect full operation” of programs through the federal fiscal year.

“Using billions of dollars from Child Nutrition for SNAP would leave an unprecedented gap in Child Nutrition funding that Congress has never had to fill with annual appropriations, and USDA cannot predict what Congress will do under these circumstances,” wrote USDA Undersecretary Patrick Penn.

Reed told Rhode Island Current on his way out of the teachers union headquarters that he believed the Trump administration would provide full funding to SNAP.

“Why would you concede half when you’re conceding?” Reed said. 

Three minutes later, after Reed had left the building, an emailed alert showed the Trump administration had submitted its plan for partial funding. 

In a statement issued after 4 p.m., Reed called the administration’s decision to partially fund SNAP “a half-baked approach.”

“Partial funding hurts the whole country and underscores Trump’s gross mismanagement,” Reed said.

Whitehouse during the press conference called the initial halt of SNAP funding by the federal government “a truly deliberate act of cruelty.”

 “Every shutdown has had SNAP benefits continue until this one,” he told reporters.

Magaziner called Trump’s actions “shameful and unnecessary.”

“Hunger should never be used as a political weapon,” Magaziner said. “We cannot give into their bullying. If we give in now, then it will be four more years of assaults on working people and we cannot go along with that.”

Reed warned the brief chaos from the SNAP cuts will become the norm after the “Big Beautiful Bill” adopted by Republicans in July reduced $186 billion from SNAP funding through 2034.

“Essentially, it will destroy SNAP,” Reed said.

Rhode Island’s congressional delegation has voiced similar concerns about other federal aid programs, particularly health care subsidies. The delegation echoed Senate Democrats’ demands that Congressional Republicans extend the Obama-era subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

Whitehouse said he is confident the GOP-controlled Senate will start to come to the table to meet Democratic demands and end the shutdown.

“They’re feeling the heat,” Whitehouse said.

Editor’s note: Ocean State Stories reported on SNAP’s status on Nov. 2.