Missouri to send partial SNAP aid as Kansas in limbo after sending full benefits
The Missouri Department of Social Services is working to distribute partial November food assistance benefits to hundreds of thousands of recipients.
Chris Moreland, a DSS spokesperson, said “updated guidance” from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service on Saturday directed states to issue a portion of the monthly benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. DSS is planning to distribute up to 65% of recipients’ maximum SNAP benefits, Moreland said.
“Barring any changes, DSS anticipates beneficiaries will begin receiving benefits by mid-November,” Moreland said in an email. DSS did not elaborate on what specific date recipients can expect to see benefits on their EBT cards, or whether the distribution would occur over several days across the state.
The most recent guidance from the USDA on Saturday was that states “must not transmit full benefit issuance files to EBT processors.” Instead, the memo said that states “must continue to process and load the partial” assistance that reflects a 35% reduction of full benefits.
While that memo provided clarity to states like Missouri that had yet to distribute benefits, it only further added confusion in other states, like Kansas, that have already sent out full benefits.
On Friday, a day after a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to fully fund November’s SNAP assistance — which the administration appealed — the Kansas Department for Children and Families announced on its website that households would begin getting their full benefits that day.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said that a total of $31.6 million in benefits would be distributed to approximately 86,000 households.
Benefits for nearly 42 million Americans have been in question for weeks due to the government shutdown. The USDA has issued guidance to states on multiple occasions telling them what formulas to use when determining what amount of benefits to distribute. That has only added to the confusion.
The legal battle, which has gone back and forth for many days, only continued after Kansas and several other states distributed full benefits.
After a Boston appeals court ruled late Friday to not immediately intervene, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a ruling pausing the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause, the Associated Press said. Jackson handles emergency matters from Massachusetts.
In the USDA memo Saturday, Patrick Penn — a former Republican state representative from Kansas who is now the deputy undersecretary for the Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services with the USDA — said if states sent full benefits already, that was an “unauthorized” action.
“Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025,” Penn wrote. “Please advise the appropriate FNS Regional Office representative of steps taken to correct any actions taken that do not comply with this memorandum.”
On Monday morning, it was not clear what that meant. The Star sent a list of questions to Kansas DCF, including whether the agency was working to “undo” the distribution of benefits on Friday and if so, how would that happen? No answers have been provided yet.
“We are reviewing the November 8th memo from the USDA,” said Erin LaRow, a Kansas DCF spokeswoman, in an email.
By the afternoon, DCF and the Governor’s office had reviewed the situation.
LaRow said that guidance “has now been stayed by a judge in Massachusetts as part of the litigation joined by Governor Kelly against the USDA to protect November SNAP benefits.”
“That means that Kansas is currently under no legal obligation to take any actions pertaining to the November SNAP benefits the state disbursed on Friday,” LaRow said. “Kansans should continue to use their November SNAP benefits as usual.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM.
