RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) -- North Carolina officials late Tuesday afternoon released information about the partial payments of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Nearly 1.4 million people in North Carolina receive SNAP benefits, which will be partially paid as early as next week if federal funds are provided as expected, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services news release.

In that scenario, officials said, "NCDHHS expects all partial benefits to be loaded onto EBT cards by next week, so beneficiaries should check the balances on their cards often."

The USDA already announced it would use $4.65 billion in emergency funds to cover about half of the federal SNAP program payments in November.

The USDA has directed North Carolina and other states

See Full Page