Pennsylvania residents who rely on SNAP benefits and did not receive the monthly infusion of funds this month should be seeing their benefits cards replenished as early as Friday.

That was the message an emphatic Gov. Josh Shapiro delivered during a press conference in Philadelphia on Friday.

Shapiro said his successful lawsuit filed in the wake of the Trump administration’s refusal to release SNAP funds November 1, will immediately free up funds for millions who rely on the federal supplemental food program.

“If you were owed benefits on the 1st of November, and let’s just say for argument’s sake, your card was in zero, you should be receiving from the vendor today as a result of the work that the Department of Human services has done 100% of what was owed to you on the first of the month,” Shapiro said.

“If you were supposed to get your benefits on, say, the 15th of the month, well, you aren’t owed those yet. And so that money isn’t coming in just yet.”

The release of the federal funds on Friday came following a court order Thursday directing the Trump administration to immediately fund the anti-hunger program, which benefits 42 million Americans, including 2 million Pennsylvanians.

The court order was in response to lawsuit against the Trump administration filed by 24 governors, including Shapiro, last week, to compel the administration to fund the program.

The Trump administration, which allowed the funding stream to expire amid the protracted government shutdown, had conceded to fund the program partially, but U.S. District Judge John McConnell rejected that plan and dealt a firm order.

On Friday the Trump administration filed an appeal to McConnell’s order.

Shapiro also harshly exonerated Vice President J.D. Vance, who on Thursday pushed back on the federal court ruling, chiding the court for telling the president how to spend money during “the middle of a Democrat government shutdown.”

Shapiro noted how Vance rose to prominence by writing “Hillbilly Elegy,” his memoir about growing up in poverty in an Appalachian region of Ohio.

Shapiro noted that the region has a lot of people who rely on SNAP.

“He made millions of dollars on the backs of telling their stories and then he turned his damn back on those very people who he likes to write about and claim as his own,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro also took Vance to task for his claim that he is a person of faith.

“I know my Bible and my Bible teaches us that we are to love thy neighbor and we are to feed the hungry,” Shapiro said sharply. “Deuteronomy says, ‘if you see a person who is in need, you don’t give them a fist. You open up your hand.’ So for JD Vance now to turn around after claiming all these things his whole life and literally go to court to stop hungry people from eating, that is not only phony, it is shameful.”

Shapiro stressed that SNAP is fully a federally-funded program.

“None of this money is state-funded,” Shapiro said. “SNAP is 100% paid by the federal government. In fact, we received notice from the federal government that said if we use state money, they will not reimburse us.”

Shapiro said the money had begun to land in people’s benefits accounts “within the last few hours.”

“That’s why the dollars are flowing right now,” he said. “And I’m here updating you in real time.”

Shapiro also signed an emergency declaration to free up $5 million to fund foodbanks and other anti-hunger programs. and raised more than $2 million in private funds donated to anti-hunger programs.

SNAP delivers $366 million each month to vulnerable Pennsylvania residents. The commonwealth, he said, cannot backfill the deficit.

“These benefits are a lifeline for people,” Shapiro said. “One in eight of our neighbors are going hungry because the federal government stopped funding SNAP. It’s the first time SNAP has ever not been funded since it started in the 1960s. This is a compact that the federal government had made with people who are hungry and this country. And they broke that compact and it’s shameful.”

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