Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warns over 40 million Americans could lose SNAP food stamp benefits November 1 due to ongoing government shutdown funding crisis.

SNAP benefits, aka "food stamps," have been paused during the government shutdown, likely impacting more than 100,000 across South Jersey alone.

The Agriculture Department will reopen about 2,100 county offices all across the country Thursday despite the ongoing government shutdown to help farmers and ranchers get access to $3 billion of aid f

The USDA notice comes after the Trump administration said it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through SNAP.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will not use agency contingency funds to pay for food aid benefits set to lapse in November during the federal government shutdown, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

Wisconsin joined a multi-state lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture to force the release of FoodShare funds before benefits run dry Nov. 1.

SNAP has about $6 billion in the contingency fund — short of the roughly $9 billion needed to cover a full month of the program, putting November benefits in jeopardy.

A group of Democratic states is suing the Department of Agriculture and its secretary, Brooke Rollins, for failing to use emergency funds to help alleviate the lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits caused by the government shutdown.