Half the country — 25 states, including Hawaii — sued the feds Tuesday over a cut-off of food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), set to begin Saturday. The suit charges that the federal government is obligated to use SNAP’s roughly $6 billion emergency reserve, and seeks a ruling by Friday to force distribution of the reserve fund, which amounts to about three-fourths of SNAP’s average $8 billion national monthly distribution.

In Hawaii, the cut-off stands to affect about 27,900 families, 62,000 kids and 161,400 people who receive nearly $58 million monthly in SNAP aid.

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