A key benefit will remain in place for North Carolina mothers and children through the end of November, N.C. Department of Health and Human Services officials said Friday.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program costs about $24 million to administer each month in North Carolina.
As of Friday, the state had enough funds to keep benefits in place for one month. The program provides food, formula and support to 262,000 pregnant women, new mothers and children younger than five years old in North Carolina.
"While it is possible that the federal government may allocate additional funds to extend these benefits, NCDHHS does not currently have funding to maintain benefits past the end of November and no certainty that additional funds will be received," Summer Tonizzo, a DHHS spokeswoman, wrote in an email to the N.C. Newsroom.
The federal government shut down on Oct. 1, with Congress failing to pass a budget for the 2026 fiscal year. That meant Congress did not pass new funding for safety net programs like WIC and SNAP.
In October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture shifted $300 million in what Politico called "unused tariff funds" from child nutrition programs left over from the prior calendar year" to fund WIC nationally. Thus far, there does not appear to have been a similar influx of funds to the program for November.
SNAP lawsuit and other benefits
That funding became a point in the lawsuit Democratic attorneys general and governors filed against USDA over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits this week.
Plaintiffs, including North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, argued in part that USDA had been able to shift tariff money to fund WIC on an emergency basis and thus should have also been able to shift funds to keep SNAP benefits intact while the shutdown continues. They also argued that USDA cannot decide against using a multi-billion dollar emergency fund Congress set up for the program, which is the nation's hallmark food relief effort.
Friday, Indira Talwani, a U.S. District Court Judge in Massachusetts, ruled that USDA must use the $6 billion SNAP reserve fund to keep benefits afloat during the shutdown.
SNAP costs about $8.3 billion each month nationally. That includes between $230 and $250 million that provides benefits to more than 1.3 million people in North Carolina.
"We’re not finished, but this is a major step toward making sure 16 million kids don’t go hungry," Jackson wrote in a statement.
Talwani's order said that USDA can offer reduced benefits if it chooses to only use the reserve fund or pull in money from elsewhere to provide full benefits. But the order indicated that pulling in money from other funds would be optional for the agency.
"Whether Defendants choose to use only the appropriated Contingency Funds and reduce benefits or use the additional discretionary funds to cover the shortfall, Defendants now have different options before them based on the court's findings," Talwani wrote.
Without action, SNAP benefits are set to stop being issued on Saturday. The USDA must file a motion by Monday letting the court know which approach it plans to take.
"At least some recipients will not receive SNAP payments at the beginning of the month and this absence of SNAP payments will undoubtedly result in substantial harm to them," Brown wrote.
Also available through the end of November is funding for the Child and Adult Care Food Program. That program provides meals to child care centers, adult day cares and afterschool programs. According to DHHS, it provides meals and snacks to about 118,000 people.
