Minnesota leaders confirmed Saturday the state will issue full SNAP benefits for November to the 440,000 Minnesotans enrolled in wake of a federal court ruling ordering existing federal funds to be directed to the program.   

Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison made separate announcements on Saturday, but neither noted the move by the U.S. Supreme Court late Friday to temporarily freeze a lower court order that required the Trump administration to provide SNAP benefits. It's unclear if it will have any impact.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in her ruling it will give a federal appeals court more time to consider whether to provide the Trump administration with longer emergency relief while the appeal in the dispute over payments for SNAP moves forward.  

"This funding, used by children, seniors, and people with disabilities to pay for food, has been in limbo since October. Restoring this funding took numerous court rulings ordering the Trump administration to use the money hey have set aside — for this very purpose — to feed the hungry," Walz said in a statement posted to social media. "This cruelty serves no one. The dysfunction caused by this administration, at the expense of real lives, is staggering. But we will not let Minnesotans go hungry."

Ellison joined 26 other states in a series of lawsuits to unfreeze the funds, with his office noting Minnesotans who use SNAP benefits receive an average of $5.46 a day.

'It should never have come to this — Donald Trump chose to hold hungry Minnesotans hostage, making sure they stayed hungry while billionaires got richer literally by the second," Ellison said in a statement released Saturday.

The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) in a statement on Friday said that the food aid will be available as soon as this weekend. A U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island on Thursday said the Trump administration must use SNAP reserve funds plus an additional pot of money with customs receipts to support the program amid the ongoing federal government shutdown, which is now the longest in U.S. history. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday issued a memo that it would comply with that federal order and begin the process of making those funds available, just as the Justice Department sought to block that decision. Late Friday evening, an appeals court left that in place before the Supreme Court's emergency order paused the requirement to fund SNAP with government reserves.

"As the longest shutdown in U.S. history concludes its sixth week, we are incredibly grateful Minnesotans will soon have access to their food benefits thanks to important legal system updates," Tikki Brown, the agency commissioner, said in a statement. "When food support disappears, the consequences for Minnesota are immediate and far-reaching. It impacts public health, the state and local economies, education, and workforce stability."

The Minnesota DCYF will issue benefits to households currently approved to receive SNAP and the Minnesota Family Investment Program payments, which may mean some will get them sooner than normal. 

Jason Viana, executive director of The Open Door, a food pantry in Eagan, said the back-and-forth in court and the prolonged standstill in Congress are leaving families in limbo. He said his organization hasn't seen this many people come through their doors seeking help since the start of the pandemic. 

"I think the challenge with all the news stories and the rulings and the judge orders is it's just uncertain, and that uncertainty is what breeds anxiety and families that need food aren't sure if they're going to be able to get it," he told WCCO in an interview Friday. 

The Open Door has seen double the number of walk-ins and triple the number of requests from partners like schools and counties over the last several weeks.

Since funding for SNAP lapsed, The Open Door has received a surge and donations. Late last month, Walz also directed $4 million in emergency funding to food shelves that Viana said organizations like his just received. But that support only goes so far. 

"Food shelves alone cannot fill the gap that families are facing so it helps, and we're grateful, but it's still not going to get us to where we need to be," he said. 

Late Friday, Hennepin County also approved $2 million for food banks and food shelves through the end of the year.