(MENAFN- Live Mint) As Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – America's biggest food aid program for low-income, unemployed Americans – faces funding uncertainty, sparking fears of starting a hunger crisis amid the ongoing government shutdown, two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to continue the funding using emergency reserve – two federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled.

The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation's social safety net – and it costs about $8 billion per month nationally.

The ruling directing the Trump administration to use the emergency reserves to fnd the food aid program to feed millions of Americans has come a day before the US Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the SNAP because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown.

The funding freeze has been planned from November 1, a month after the US government shutdown came into effect.

November 1, Saturday, will mark the first-ever lapse in the SNAP.

In Rhode Island, US District Judge John J. McConnell ruled taht the SNAP must be funded using at least one emergency reserve. He had also asked for an update on progress by Monday, November 3.

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The administration argued it could not use the roughly $5 billion contingency fund for the program, reversing a pre-shutdown USDA plan that had designated those funds to keep SNAP operational.

The Democratic officials argued that not only could that money be used, but that it must be. They also said a separate fund with around $23 billion is available for the cause.

On Thursday, October 30, New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency to issue $65 million for assistance to food banks to avert hunger crisis in the city. Federal funding for the national food stamp program is set to expire on November 1.

As per the data from the US Department of Agriculture, New York receives nearly $650 million in federal funding for SNAP benefits each month.

After New York declared a state of emergency, Oregon and Virginia, too, issued emergency to free funds for emergency food assistance before the aid lapses for millions of low-income Americans who depend on the food stamps for basic nutrition and health.

As per Reuters, more than 41 million people receive food benefits in the US.

(With agency inputs)

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