Clementines in a basket with SNAP benefits tokens at farmer Seth Matlick’s booth at the Albuquerque Growers’ Market on Oct. 25, 2025). (Danielle Prokop/Source NM)
On Saturday, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a statement in response to the United States Department of Agriculture’s pending Nov. 1 stop of food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
USDA issued a memo Friday that said the agency’s contingency fund could not be legally used to provide food assistance benefits for more than 42 million people that rely on SNAP. Numerous Democratic lawmakers, including members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, had written to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins contending the agency could use such funds.
Moreover, the USDA sent a memo to regional SNAP directors instructing them to “take immediate action to implement [the] suspension” of SNAP benefits and notify households that receive them.
“The federal government’s refusal to pay for SNAP benefits in November is unconscionable,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement, “and the absurdity doesn’t end there.”
The governor noted that 460,000 New Mexico residents rely on SNAP, giving the state the highest participation rate in the nation. “The federal government has abandoned its responsibility to feed families.”
The governor reiterated, as her office had on Friday, that her administration is evaluating “every available legal and administrative option under this guidance, working closely with our Health Care Authority, food banks, and community partners to protect vulnerable families — including children, seniors, and people with disabilities.” She also said the state would be expediting $8 million that had for food banks, “though that’s only a fraction of the $80 to $90 million in monthly SNAP benefits New Mexicans rely on.”
Ending the shutdown, she noted would be “the best way to solve this crisis.”
The pending SNAP shutdown also weighed on the minds of farmers selling over the weekend at Albuquerque’s Downtown Growers’ Market.
Seth Matlick, 41, a north valley farmer, described the stoppage as “definitely bad news — not so much for me, but people need to eat.” He noted that he would be at the market on Nov. 8 with food “and if people lose their benefits, we’ll figure out IOUs or some such.”
Danielle Prokop contributed reporting to this story.
