How the federal shutdown will affect food stamps, heating assistance and more in Minnesota

Crucial government programs that feed families and heat homes are among those that will start to run out of money on Nov. 1 as the federal government shutdown drags on.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate have refused to vote for a spending plan that would reopen the government, demanding that Republicans extend health insurance subsidies that would hold down the cost of plans offered through the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have declined to negotiate on that point, saying the government should be reopened first.

In the meantime, the effects of the shutdown are trickling down to more Minnesotans.

Already, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are on furlough or working without pay across the country. Now, some key benefits programs are set to be hit, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which subsidizes heating costs, and the early childhood education program Head Start.

Here’s what we know about the potential impacts in Minnesota.

The Trump administration has signaled it won’t fund SNAP and other food program payments in November. The state would have received $73 million in federal funding to feed more than 440,000 Minnesotans, a majority of whom live in greater Minnesota. Starting Saturday, residents on SNAP won’t receive any more benefits.

Minnesota officials announced Monday they would send $4 million to community food shelves throughout the state, but many counties and communities will have to rely on other donations to get meals to those in need.

Food shelf advocates had pressured federal officials to tap into a reported $5 billion contingency fund the U.S. Department of Agriculture has previously used in other government shutdowns, but the Trump administration has refused to budge. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Tuesday he joined 22 other state attorneys general in suing the department to access those funds.

State officials have warned in recent weeks that the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC), which provides food for about 100,000 pregnant women, new mothers and young children in Minnesota, will soon run out of money. The program serves about 40% of all newborns in the state.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Health, which administers the program, confirmed that Minnesota WIC recently received additional funds to continue services but that those will run out in mid-November.

In the meantime, state officials say participants should continue to keep their WIC appointments and use their benefits.

The shutdown is causing funding delays for the LIHEAP, which benefits roughly 300,000 Minnesotans who live in households relying on heat assistance each year.

“We are deeply concerned about the potential impact of this funding gap on Minnesota households,” Minnesota Department of Commerce Commissioner Grace Arnold said in a statement.

The funding delay will have an outsized impact in rural Minnesota, where many households use delivered fuels like propane. Those households do not have the same protections as households that use natural gas or electricity for heating because the state’s cold weather rule — which helps prevent residential utility shut-off in cold weather — doesn’t extend to propane or fuel oil users.

Four nonprofits operating Head Start programs serving Minnesota’s neediest preschoolers will be cut off from federal funding at the end of the month because of the government shutdown.

The nonprofits, with headquarters in Rochester, Blaine, Elbow Lake and Grand Portage, operate dozens of Head Start locations across the state and take care of more than 1,300 children, according to the Minnesota Head Start Association.

The organizations are depending on state funding that will provide them with about six to eight weeks of buffer room, said Kraig Gratke, executive director of the association.

In other states, some Head Start programs have already sent notices that they will have to shut down without federal funding, the Associated Press reported. Some 134 programs that take care of 59,000 children nationwide will not receive federal money due Nov. 1 if the government does not reopen, the National Head Start Association said. More programs would be affected if the shutdown continues into December.

If Minnesota’s state funding runs out before the federal government reopens, there’s a risk of a “hard shutdown,” Gratke said. Programs in the state fear that staff, who already have high turnover since COVID, would leave for more stable jobs, making it incredibly difficult to “start back up again” and rebuild community trust even after federal funding is restored.