But delays are on the horizon, and stakeholders will need time to recover from the damage that’s already been done.
At first the United States Department of Agriculture said it would use emergency funding to cover benefits during a shutdown.
Then the Trump administration changed course as a way to pressure Democrats into ending the shutdown, saying no benefits would go out in November. That set off a chaotic series of events, with some people getting partial benefits, others getting nothing, and conflicting court decisions.
States and food banks have had to watch for and react to every court order as they contend with the unprecedented lapse in crucial food assistance.
As of this week, the Supreme Court ruled to allow SNAP benefits to stay paused until at least Thursday.
“The disruption to SNAP benefits has presented operational challenges and confusion for many independent grocers who support their communities through their participation in SNAP," a spokesperson for the National Grocers Association (NGA) said in a statement to The Hill.
SNAP is such a massive program that there was no feasible way for state governments to fill in the gaps, something several state leaders like Govs. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) and Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) grimly acknowledged last week
While some states have either moved forward with full benefits for November or announced their intention to pay 100 percent of benefits, other states have followed plans to pay 65 percent of the payments, in accordance with the administration's edict.
From a technical perspective, experts have said people who received no benefits will get the delayed funds quicker because issuing full benefits is easier than recalculating and issuing partial amounts.
