President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday it would comply with federal court rulings and release funds for the nation’s largest food aid program, which lapsed Saturday amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Two federal judges, one in Massachusetts and another in Rhode Island, on Friday issued rulings requiring the government to keep the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, running. The administration told the courts Monday it would release half of the typical monthly SNAP benefits using a congressionally approved $4.65 billion emergency fund. SNAP costs more than $8 billion a month, according to the USDA.

The program serves about 500,000 Nevadans by providing $90 million in monthly benefits. About 1 in 8 Americans, or around 42 million participants, including children, rely on the program.

“Let’s be clear: the administration has the money to send SNAP recipients their full benefits for this month, but Trump is choosing not to use it,” U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., wrote in a social media post. “Nevada kids who rely on this program shouldn’t go hungry because Trump refuses to feed them.”

Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, cautioned against getting “overexcited” about the court decisions, noting that funding SNAP benefits “doesn’t happen overnight.” Prior to Monday’s announcement, he toured Three Square Food Bank with the organization’s president and CEO, Beth Martino. 

Even in a “best-case scenario,” Martino said it could take a week or two for funds to reach recipients’ EBT cards. The process is further complicated by the ongoing government shutdown, which Reuters reports has resulted in the furloughing of roughly half of the USDA’s workforce.

In the meantime, the Nevada Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee has put over $38 million toward supporting food banks in the state to stem food shortages while SNAP funding is in limbo. Much of that money will go to Three Square.

Lombardo also said Monday that the Nevada National Guard is on a two-week deployment to facilitate packaging, delivering and transporting food. The state government’s investment would be “sufficient” to cover November, he said.

Over the last four months, Martino said, Three Square has seen a 16% increase in the number of people looking for food assistance. That’s only been exacerbated by the government shutdown.

When SNAP funds lapsed on Saturday, the impact was immediately visible.

Three Square, along with UNLV, ran a distribution site near the Thomas & Mack Center with a line of cars wrapping around the arena’s parking lot. The location served over 1,000 people, Martino said.

Three Square and its partners also distributed food boxes Saturday to 1,000 people at the College of Southern Nevada and roughly 1,000 more at two local churches, Martino said. This week, the organization will have 25 additional emergency distributions to supplement its typical operations.

“One of the incredible things about Nevadans is that they step up to serve their neighbors,” Martino said. “We have people coming out to help at our food distributions, volunteering their time, stopping in here to drop off food donations or make financial donations when they themselves, in some cases, are food insecure.”

Three Square needs more “time, funds and food” from the community, Martino said. But she stressed that philanthropy alone cannot replace what SNAP provides to Nevada. The only real solution, she said, is reopening the government.

Lombardo has repeatedly called on Democrats to end the government shutdown, which marked its 34th day Monday with no end in sight.

The White House, U.S. Senate and House are all controlled by Republicans, but the majority party needs the support of a handful of Senate Democrats to get to the 60-vote threshold to adopt a House-passed, GOP-sponsored concurrent resolution to fund the government. Most Democratic senators have steadfastly withheld their votes in an effort to extend health care subsidies for an estimated 20 million Americans who otherwise would see their Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums more than double. A handful of Senate Democrats — including Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto — have broken with with their party.

This is the first time a government shutdown has resulted in SNAP funds lapsing. 

“Families are about to lose food support this Saturday, not because the country can’t afford it, but because Trump and Republicans decided hunger is an acceptable price for their politics,” Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., wrote on social media last week.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who on Nevada’s behalf joined the federal lawsuit in Massachusetts to force the administration to fund SNAP, issued a statement saying the delay has caused unnecessary hardship and anxiety for Nevadans who depend on SNAP to feed their families. He said multiple courts have made clear the USDA is legally authorized to tap other funds so that SNAP is fully funded this month.

“My office continues to evaluate the next legal steps to protect Nevada families, but the responsibility here is clear: The USDA should use every available dollar and every tool at its disposal to ensure SNAP is funded, now and going forward,” he said.