Philadelphia area Wawa stores posted signs that they couldn’t accept SNAP EBT payments early on Dec. 5, 2024, amid an apparent widespread outage.
People planning to pay for food early Thursday morning were greeted at 24/7 convenience stores with a message -- "No EBT."
Wawa stores in the Philadelphia region had handwritten or printed signs posted to the doors before daybreak on Dec. 5, 2024, warning of SNAP EBT payments being unavailable.
DownDetector tracked EBT issues picking up around midnight ET Thursday both in the Philadelphia area and nationwide.
By 6 a.m. ET, the reported outages appeared to be subsiding.
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The exact root of the payment issue wasn't clear.
What are SNAP benefits?
"Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits," the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Nutrition Service says. "When a participant shops at a SNAP authorized retail store, their SNAP EBT account is debited to reimburse the store for food that was purchased."
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The USDA overnight didn't post any message about issues with EBT outages.
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