1.4 million in NC expected to receive partial SNAP funds as early as next week, officials say

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina officials late Tuesday afternoon released information about the partial payments of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Nearly 1.4 million people in North Carolina receive SNAP benefits, which will be partially paid as early as next week if federal funds are provided as expected, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services news release.

In that scenario, officials said, “NCDHHS expects all partial benefits to be loaded onto EBT cards by next week, so beneficiaries should check the balances on their cards often.”

The USDA already announced it would use $4.65 billion in emergency funds to cover about half of the federal SNAP program payments in November.

The USDA has directed North Carolina and other states to issue November 2025 benefits at a 50 percent reduction of maximum allotments, the news release said.

All October benefits still owed to new applicants will be fully paid, N.C. officials said.

“Beneficiaries should see the partial benefits loaded onto the cards by the middle of next week,” the news release said.

NCDHHS said many people in the state are already impacted by the funding delay.

“At the beginning of November, more than 60 percent of beneficiaries had $25.00 or less on their accounts,” the news release said.