Mississippi will begin distributing up to 65% of food assistance benefits for the month of November to recipients, the Mississippi Department of Human Services announced Monday. 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are distributed on a rolling basis between the 4th and 21st of each month. Recipients who were scheduled to receive SNAP benefits earlier this month but have not yet due to the federal government shutdown will begin receiving partial assistance as early as today, the agency said in a press release. Others will receive their benefits on their regularly scheduled date.

Mississippi is distributing up to 65% of SNAP benefits to recipients in accordance with guidance from the United States Department of Agriculture, the federal agency that administers the program, said the state Department of Human Services in a statement. Full benefits will be distributed once the federal government approves their release. 

“Benefit amounts have been set by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, not MDHS,” the statement said.

Beneficiaries in Mississippi receive $183 on average in food assistance per month, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Partial benefits for the average beneficiary would amount to a loss of about $65 in aid in November. 

“The hardworking families in Mississippi who already struggle to make ends meet and have tight budgets that include SNAP help are relying on them to ensure wellness in their homes,” Dr. Patricia Tibbs, the president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, previously told Mississippi Today.

Confusion over how states should distribute the benefits has mounted in the past week after the Trump administration contested a court order directing the federal government to issue full benefits. 

New food assistance benefits have not been issued to Mississippians since Nov. 1. Food assistance has continued to flow in past shutdowns, but the federal government said Oct. 24 that it could not use emergency funds to pay for the program, spurring a legal battle over the paused benefits.

Federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ordered the federal government on Oct. 31 to use emergency funds to continue funding the program after more than two dozen states sued the Trump administration over its refusal to issue the benefits. 

The federal Department of Agriculture initially told states to distribute no more than half of November’s SNAP benefits, before later revising that guidance to instruct states to issue up to 65 percent of benefits. A federal judge in Rhode Island then ordered the agency to fund the program in full. 

The Trump administration released guidance Nov. 7 indicating it was “working towards implementing” full benefits, even as it appealed a court ruling. Twenty states, including New York, California and North Carolina, began to issue full benefits, but after a stay of the order, the administration ordered states to “undo” the issuance of full benefits and warned it would penalize states that proceeded. 

A federal judge then temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering states to roll back full SNAP payments. On Monday, the administration returned to the Supreme Court in another attempt to halt full funding for food assistance. 

The federal government shutdown, now reaching 41 days, is the longest in U.S. history, but Congress appeared closer than ever to reaching a resolution on Monday. That latest development came after eight senators broke ranks with Democrats and joined Republicans in a vote to fund the government through Jan. 30 Sunday night. The legislation still needs to pass the House in order for the shutdown to end.

About 1 in 8 Mississippians — over 350,000 people — receive food assistance through SNAP. More than 67% of participants are in households with children, and about 41% are in households with older adults or adults with a disability. In four Mississippi counties, over a third of residents rely on the program to purchase food, according to a report from WLBT. 

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has previously said he will not move for Mississippi to bridge the gap in the food assistance program until the federal shutdown ends, even though pediatricians and some state legislators urged the governor to do so. 

“There is sadly no simple way for state government to just step in and pay the hundreds of millions of dollars in harm that this shutdown by the Washington Democrats is causing,” he wrote in a social media post Oct. 27. 

The day before benefits were paused, Reeves requested a waiver from the federal government to restrict the use of food assistance benefits to purchase sugary food and drinks. If approved, the changes would take effect in 2027. 

Other changes to SNAP benefits are set to take effect this month as a result of federal budget legislation President Donald Trump signed into law in July. The law increases the existing work requirement’s upper age limit from 54 to 65 and extends the requirement to people who were previously exempt: veterans, those facing homelessness and young people aging out of foster care. There is still a caregiver exemption, but to qualify, parents must have children younger than 14 — down from age 18.

Recipients do not have to do anything to receive their benefits, according to the press release from the state Department of Human Services. They should ensure all household and requested information is up-to-date, complete and scheduled interviews and register for a ConnectEBT account.