More than 5,200 Franklin County residents cutoff from SNAP food assistance benefits due to shutdown
The ongoing shutdown of the federal government is now impacting more than 752,000 Alabamians who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase food each month.
As of November 1, 2025, SNAP benefits will cease indefinitely due to the federal government shutdown. Those benefits to Alabamians represent more than $140 million in support each month.
Additionally, the SNAP supplemental program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC will also stop due to lack of funding.
There are more than 110,000 Alabama residents who participate in the WIC program.
SNAP is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. Individual states manage the benefits and eligibility for that state’s residents.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, one in eight Americans rely on SNAP to afford groceries each month.
In Franklin County, 5,202 people receive SNAP benefits each month, representing 16.3% of the county’s population. That falls somewhere in the middle of the percentages of all 67 Alabama counties. Perry County has the state’s highest percentage of SNAP recipients, with 44.5% of the population. St. Clair County, at only 5.4% of its residents participating, is the state’s lowest county.
While some states have committed to continuing SNAP benefits during the federal government shutdown, that is not the case in Alabama. SNAP is administered through the Alabama Department of Human Resources. DHR will continue to process SNAP applications during the shutdown to determine eligibility but no benefits will be paid during the suspension.
And SNAP recipients in Alabama must continue to recertify their benefits and report all required information to continue eligibility even though their benefits are suspended.
The reason for this is so DHR can submit each recipient’s benefit file as soon as the suspension is lifted, allowing recipients to more quickly use SNAP funds to purchase groceries.
It’s a serious problem that has reached all the way to Washington D.C., and Congressman Robert Aderholt, who issued the following statement last week after the announcement that SNAP benefits would be suspended: “Food assistance benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will lapse on November 1 simply because Washington can’t keep the government open. This failure is completely avoidable. Working families should never be used as leverage in partisan battles. If Democrats wish to open discussions about Affordable Care Act subsidies, I say let’s do that—but let’s keep the government running while we talk. Let’s not shut down vital services and leave millions of Americans wondering how they’ll put food on the table.”
The current government shutdown, which began on October 1, 2025, results from Congress’ failure to pass appropriations legislation, simplified to mean a budget, for FY2025-26, which began that day.
With Congress unable to approve a bill funding government services for the new fiscal year, the federal budget essentially expired as of October 1st.
Democrats are advocating for an extension of tax credits set to expire that make health insurance cheaper for citizens and they want President Donald Trump’s cuts to Medicaid rescinded.
Republicans, although they control both Houses of Congress, do not have the requisite 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass the spending bill without some Democratic support.
Trump has said he’s not willing to rescind Medicaid cuts and Republicans say they are willing to discuss health insurance subsidies but only after the federal government reopens.
DHR officials are referring SNAP recipients who need additional food support during the shutdown to local food banks, including their local Feeding Alabama food bank. You can visit www.feedingalabama.org for information on what may available.