Here’s why Utahns haven’t gotten any SNAP payments despite families in some states seeing full benefits
About a half-dozen states were able to secure full food stamp benefits before an emergency Supreme Court order halted efforts.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Samantha Whitney helps her mother, Melissa Caress, pack food bags at the USANA Foundation to distribute to people who haven’t received SNAP benefits on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025.
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In Utah, not one of the roughly 169,300 adults and children who rely on food stamps each month has received any November benefits through the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the state’s Department of Workforce Services.
Recipients in more than a half-dozen other states were able to receive full November payments Friday before an emergency Supreme Court order allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to go without fully paying SNAP benefits as it continues to fight the matter in court.
In Wisconsin, for instance, about 337,000 households received more than $104 million of monthly food benefits at midnight Friday, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, The Associated Press reported.
That’s because within hours of an earlier federal court order on Thursday — which had directed the Trump administration to fund SNAP benefits in full — Wisconsin submitted a request to its EBT card vendor to process SNAP payments.
In Oregon, where SNAP recipients also received full payments, Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek said state workers “worked through the night” Thursday to ensure families could buy groceries by Friday, The Associated Press reported.
It’s unclear if Utah officials made any attempt to expedite SNAP payments.
On Saturday, Becky Wickstrom, a spokesperson for the Department of Workforce Services, declined to specify. She noted Utah hadn’t received “finalized guidance” from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fully fund the benefits.
“It’s not a truthful implication that Utah isn’t working around the clock to get people SNAP benefits,” Wickstrom said. “We are governed by USDA rules when issuing SNAP benefits.”
The states that quickly managed to issue full benefits, the Trump administration argued in a Supreme Court filing, were “trying to seize what they could of the agency’s finite set of remaining funds, before any appeal could even be filed, and to the detriment of other States’ allotments.”
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the filing that “there is no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds.”
Wickstrom said Utah plans to follow guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture by distributing 65% of this month’s SNAP funding to the roughly 86,000 households here who receive food stamps.
Issuing the partial benefit will take a few days, she said. State officials first have to configure their distribution system to send only a partial payment, then go through a testing and validation period before the funds can be sent to EBT cards, Wickstrom explained.
If people are uncertain about where they will get their next meal, she recommended they call Utah 211, a free service that works to connect callers with resources.
United Way of Salt Lake announced in a Wednesday news release that Utah 211 requests were surging amid the ongoing government shutdown and SNAP uncertainty, with 25% of people requesting food assistance.
As SNAP benefits remain in limbo, state leaders have pledged up to $4 million to the Utah Food Bank. Democratic legislators on Tuesday urged the state’s Republican leaders to call lawmakers into a special session in order to tap into Utah’s more than $330 million rainy-day fund to help fulfill SNAP payments.
