Nearly 1 in 10 Tennesseans could lose SNAP benefits come November if government shutdown continues

Nearly one in 10 Tennesseans could lose federal SNAP benefits come November if the federal government shutdown continues. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

More than 690,000 Tennesseans who rely on federally-funded food aid will lose it come Nov. 1 if the federal government shutdown continues, the state announced this week.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, or SNAP, helps feed one in ten low-income and disabled adults and children in Tennessee in the form of loaded debit cards to use at the grocery store. The average Tennessee family receives about $340 per month. 

The Tennessee Department of Human Services, or TDHS, informed SNAP recipients that it had received notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that SNAP funding will cease entirely on Nov. 1 without an end to the government shutdown. 

“If the federal government shutdown continues, federally-funded SNAP benefits for November will be unavailable,” TDHS said on its website. 

“TDHS is closely monitoring the situation,” it said. A spokesperson for the agency did not respond to questions about the looming halt to food benefits.  

The USDA notified states it is working on a backup plan but has yet to produce one that will continue to keep benefits in place. SNAP helps feed more than 41 million Americans each month. 

Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been at a budgetary impasse for three weeks with no immediate resolution in sight.

The potential disruption in food aid comes as Tennessee, and other states, face a separate looming shortfall in federal funds for SNAP after a Trump administration rejiggered its funding mechanisms.

Until now the federal government has paid half of the $128 million in administrative costs Tennessee incurs to run the program and picked up the tab for the entire $800 million in cash benefits, according to 2023 data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Under the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, states will soon have to pick up 75% of the administrative costs and a portion of the $800 million in benefits. 

One recent estimate found Tennessee’s new share of SNAP costs will exceed $110 million each year. TDHS officials have not yet publicly announced how the state intended to absorb the cost.