(The Hill) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) emailed grocery stores prohibiting them from offering discounts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients amid the government shutdown.
The email, shared Sunday by MSNBC’s Catherine Rampell to the social media platform X, said that grocery stores “must offer eligible goods at the same prices and on the same terms and conditions” to SNAP recipients.
National Grocers Association (NGA) Vice President David Cutler confirmed to The Hill Monday that the email was sent to grocers. The NGA represents over 21,000 independent grocery stores around the country.
The Sunday notice states that unless a store has a waiver allowing it to bypass the program’s equal treatment requirement, “offering discounts or services only to SNAP paying customers is a SNAP violation.”
A spokesperson for the NGA added that independent grocers around the country “remain committed to serving all customers with fairness and integrity” during the shutdown, which began on Oct. 1.
“Independent grocers understand the importance of SNAP in helping families access nutritious food and are following all federal guidance to ensure every customer is treated equally,” the spokesperson added. “Our members continue to uphold the highest standards of customer service while keeping their communities fed during this challenging time.”
The Hill has reached out to the USDA for further comment on the email.
On Monday, Trump administration officials told a federal judge in Rhode Island that it would provide partial SNAP benefits for November via a $4.65 billion contingency fund. Two federal judges had ordered the administration to do so on Friday.
November SNAP benefits for over 40 million recipients are estimated to cost over $9 billion. The judges said Friday that the USDA could tap into other sources to cover the remaining benefits, such as its Section 32 Child Nutrition fund.
However, the administration said Monday that doing so would be “an unacceptable risk.”
“Section 32 Child Nutrition Program funds are not a contingency fund for SNAP,” said Patrick Penn, who oversees the SNAP program, wrote in a sworn declaration.
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