On average, 42.4 million people in 22.7 million households received monthly SNAP benefits through the first eight months of the 2025 fiscal year.

In a brief order, the U.S. Supreme Court acceded to a request by the Trump administration to at least temporarily block enforcement of an order by a lower court judge to fund the full November allotment for each of the 42 million Americans who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

About one in eight Pennsylvanians depend on SNAP for grocery assistance totaling about $366 million each month.

The Buffalo, New York, native has been living in financial limbo since being laid off in early June, and has had to turn to food stamps. But now even that lifeline has been taken away as she has become one of an estimated 41.7 million Americans affected by the federal pause of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ( SNAP ).

About 42 million people participate in SNAP, which provides food assistance to low-income households. But online, X users have fueled doubts about the program’s beneficiaries.

Pa. SNAP recipients say they lost sleep over the program's halt, cut out meat and worried about meeting their health needs.

Victims of food stamp theft — whether through electronic fraud or EBT skimming — can no longer get refunds, leaving many local families struggling as grocery prices soar. The temporary federal law Congress passed in 2022 to allow refunds of stolen benefits with federal funds expired almost a year ago.