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Over the weekend, Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the full restoration of SNAP benefits for November, despite a White House order to undo efforts to issue food assistance benefits.

State leaders say SNAP recipients should have received payments as early as Saturday.

"These are our veterans, seniors, families,” Ellison said during a press conference Monday. “There are people who need our assistance as their fellow Americans, and the Trump administration apparently wants them to go hungry, perhaps because he believes that they are a bargaining chip in his shutdown conflict that these hungry folks have nothing to do with."

Late last week, Attorney General Keith Ellison co-led a lawsuit with 25 other states to force the Trump administration to pay out SNAP benefits amid the ongoing government shutdown. A court early Monday stayed that demand. But the legal battle continues with 

 in a push by the Trump administration to keep funds frozen. 

Trump administration renews Supreme Court appeal to keep full SNAP payments frozen

Ellison told reporters Minnesota will continue paying out SNAP benefits, even after the Trump administration's financial threats, and he said state leaders will “stand by” the 440,000 Minnesotans who receive food assistance.

Still, it's a bit of a confusing back-and-forth for Duluth mom Hannah Mellesmoen. She uses SNAP to feed her three children, and she said she wasn't sure what to think after last week.

"It was pretty nerve wracking,” Mellesmoen said. “It's kind of been like, well, what am I going to do? What bills am I going to miss to be able to still get groceries? Or what groceries will I not be getting so that I can still pay bills? It's kind of like that back-and-forth of what am I not going to be able to provide?"

When Mellesmoen thought she wouldn’t receive SNAP benefits in November, she relied on her community and local food pantries.

Ellison urged Minnesotan to continue donating and volunteering at their local food pantries, who have been seeing increased use and were already operating at a deficit before the shutdown began.

Mellesmoen said she's happy to have her payments back this month, but she’s still worried about possibly having to pay the money back.

“Minnesota says that they'll pay and it's going to be your monthly amount. But then there's the backlash from the President, right? Any state that gave those, now it's not permitted for the states to be paying them, and so it's kind of very confusing. Is this actually money that I'm supposed to be using?" she said. 

State leaders said they have no intention of asking people to pay the money back.

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A back-and-forth between the Trump administration and state leaders is causing confusion about the SNAP benefits Minnesotans received this weekend amid the ongoing federal shutdown.

Minnesota issues SNAP payments despite Trump pushback

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