The Trump administration on Monday told a federal judge in Rhode Island that it will tap contingency funds to make partial food assistance payments for 42 million low-income and disabled people across the nation this month.

The move comes after federal judges in Boston and Providence last week issued similar orders for President Trump to use emergency reserves for the payments during the government shutdown.

The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program known as SNAP, warned, however, it will not use other federal money to fund the full payments, extending uncertainty to people who rely on the help.

News of the partial reprieve was greeted with a mix of relief and concern.

“I want to be happy that I’m going to get half of my benefits, but now I’m already thinking about the following month, and January and February,” said Janin Otero, 46, of Roxbury, a mother of three who receives a $900 benefit. “I’ll believe it when I see it in my account.”

SNAP is a key piece of the nation’s safety net and serves 1 in 8 Americans at a cost of more than $8 billion per month.

It’s not clear how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly beneficiaries will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries.

On Friday, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the US District Court in Rhode Island granted a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from halting the funds, which were to run out Saturday amid the federal government shutdown. He gave the government until noon Monday to report to him about what it will do to comply with his order.

In documents filed Monday in federal court in Providence, a USDA official said the agency will use $4.65 billion in contingency funds in November for SNAP.

But the agency warned that, “This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely.”

McConnell’s order gave the government until Wednesday to make partial payments.

The Trump administration said it would provide details to states on calculating the per-household partial benefit. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states, officials said.

The USDA stated in the court filing it could take weeks or even months for states to make all the system changes to send out reduced benefits. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.

Massachusetts officials said the state has not been informed how much funding it will get and when it would be made available, noting that the Department of Transitional Assistance would inform recipients when there were more details.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, who led a coalition of Democratic state officials in a separate lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston last week, criticized the Trump administration’s decision to make only partial payments.

“While some funding is better than no funding, the federal government has made it clear that they are only willing to do the bare minimum to help our residents, and only after they were required to do so by our lawsuit and the courts,” Campbell said Monday.

Governor Maura Healey agreed.

“Families should never have been put through this, and it shouldn’t have taken a court order to force President Trump to feed American families like every president before him,” Healey said in a statement.

Families served by EMPath (Economic Mobility Pathways) depend on SNAP benefits, and partial payments will not be enough for them, said Kim Janey, the organization’s president-chief executive.

“It does not put the American people first,” said Janey, a former acting Boston mayor. “So for all of this talk about America first, I’m not seeing it. … I don’t see how letting children be hungry puts Americans first.”

Requests for comment sent Monday to the White House and the USDA were met with automatic replies saying responses will be delayed due to the government shutdown.

Orlando Rivera, of Holyoke, who has an 11-year-old and 9-year-old at home, said he normally receives $735 a month to feed his family of three. When he heard whisperings of potential SNAP cuts last month, he thought, “they’ll never do that. Not in America.”

When he heard that the Trump administration will partially fund SNAP for the month of November, Rivera said, “I’ll have to make it work.”

US Representative Ayanna Pressley was hosting a roundtable discussion in Dorchester with local SNAP-dependent food sellers in Bowdoin Geneva when the Trump administration announced the partial payments.

Pressley said that the delay of payments – even partially – could still cripple local businesses.

“Without SNAP sales, their doors could close and the consequences will be felt out in these communities,” she said. “It would leave families, children, seniors, and those with disabilities without an affordable and accessible food supply and it would leave a marked gap in our local economies.”

US Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said it is “outrageous that it took a court order for President Trump to follow the law and fund SNAP.”

The Providence judge’s order came in response to a lawsuit that the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island and Democracy Forward had filed on behalf of a coalition that includes the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, several other charitable and faith-based nonprofits, and the cities of Central Falls, Pawtucket, and Providence.

“As a result of the plaintiffs’ efforts, the government is going to meet its obligation to provide millions of dollars of SNAP benefits,” Miriam Weizenbaum, board president of the Lawyers Committee for Rhode Island, said in a statement. “We are disappointed the administration chose not to use its legal authority to allocate other available funds to provide complete benefits to families.”

Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman issued a statement, saying, “It shouldn’t take a court order to force our president to provide essential nutrition that Congress has made clear needs to be provided. But since that is what it takes, we will continue to use the courts to protect the rights of people.”

In making appropriations for the fiscal year 2024 SNAP program, Congress placed $3 billion in reserve in case it was needed “to carry out program operations,” and it set aside another $3 billion for fiscal year 2025, the judge said.

So now, with the shutdown preventing appropriations for fiscal year 2026, use of those contingency funds is required “to carry out the program operations” and pay SNAP benefits, Judge McConnell said.

“There is no question that the congressionally approved contingency funds must be used now because of the shutdown,” he wrote in his decision, noting Trump used contingency for SNAP benefits during a 2019 shutdown in his first term.

In his order, McConnell emphasized that “Congress created SNAP as an entitlement,” noting the statute says those benefits “shall be furnished to all eligible households who make application for such participation.”

Victoria Negus, a senior economic justice advocate at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said the partial funding of SNAP is a good thing, but people are struggling right now.

“It doesn’t help make up for the human and economic harms that occur right now during the delay,” she said.

Janelle Nanos and Alyssa Vega of the Globe staff contributed and material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv. Katie Johnston can be reached at katie.johnston@globe.com. Follow her @ktkjohnston. Mara Kardas-Nelson can be reached at mara.kardas-nelson@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.