Hawai‘i residents whose SNAP benefits are set to shut down this weekend will get relief from the state — in two weeks’ time.
Gov. Josh Green and other lawmakers announced this week a series of programs intended to fill in the gap in services caused by the freeze of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week amid the ongoing shutdown of the federal government.
On Wednesday, Green announced a program to assist families with housing and utility costs, and on Thursday, he announced a $42.2 million program to substitute for missing SNAP benefits.
The Hawai‘i Food Assistance Program will issue SNAP beneficiaries a “emergency relief payment” of $250 per person. Current SNAP recipients are already enrolled in the program, and the funds will be accessible through users’ current electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards.
Green said about 161,400 people in the state receive SNAP benefits each month, including nearly 28,000 families and more than 62,000 children. SNAP benefits received in Hawai‘i between Oct. 2024 and Sept. 2025 totaled more than $57 million.
However, the emergency state funds won’t be available until Nov. 14 at the latest — Green said the money could be disbursed “a couple days sooner.” Department of Human Services deputy director Joseph Campos said there have been some technical challenges in connecting the emergency funds to the existing EBT system.
Green added that the state only began developing the program this week, and that he hadn’t anticipated Trump cutting SNAP benefits — the program hasn’t lapsed once during its 60-year history — and it also wasn’t immediately clear whether EBT cards would continue to work after the SNAP freeze.
Campos said that the average Hawai‘i SNAP benefit is $346 per person, meaning that, even when the funds are available, they will likely be reduced from a recipient’s usual benefit.
Green said SNAP recipients who still have unspent benefits on their cards should still be able to access them after the freeze, although he acknowledged this will likely be cold comfort for many.
The Food Assistance Program is funded through about $28 million in state general funds and an additional $13 million taken out of a $400 million surplus in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Green said this was a “manageable” amount of money that didn’t necessitate dipping into the state’s rainy day fund, which would have required a special session of the legislature. But Green also said he will demand reimbursement from the federal government for state funds used once the shutdown ends.
“Whether or not we’ll get [reimbursed], it’s hard to know,” Green said. “We care about people first and so we’re going to take care of people first. And we’ll worry about that as time goes by.”
Green said he doesn’t anticipate a need to call a special session, but also said he expects the shutdown will end soon.
“I’m thinking it’s going to open up before Thanksgiving,” Green said. “I don’t have any special intel except that I think that Congress is probably not going to allow the chaos of Thanksgiving to run over everybody in the country.”
Green said he is prepared to extend the benefits of the program into December if necessary, and will still go through with the program even if the shutdown ends or the SNAP freeze is reverted before Nov. 1. On the other hand, he said he “hopes to God” that the shutdown does not continue into 2026.
In the meantime, Green said additional programs to assist other people who may fall outside of the eligibility ranges of the programs announced this week are still being developed, and could be announced in November.
To supplement food availability, Green said he has directed a state supplement of $2 million to food banks throughout the state, and Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said her office is heading up food drive efforts, encouraging residents to donate nonperishable or canned goods to donate to food banks on each island.
Food drive donation sites will open Monday, Luke said, at locations yet to be announced.
Native Hawaiian families will also be able to receive benefits from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which announced it will commit $6.1 million in emergency relief funds to support families in paying for food, utilities or housing.
Residents can call 211 between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. to be connected to available services.
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