Delaware to cover SNAP benefits for low-income residents as state sues Trump administration over funding

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Delaware will cover food stamp benefits for more than 100,000 Delawareans on a weekly basis through November.

Gov. Matt Meyer announced a state of emergency to address the needs on Wednesday. He is also calling for a special session for state lawmakers to consider tax code changes to address a projected $400 million shortfall in the state’s next budget.

Delawareans with little or no income will be among the millions around the U.S. who will start feeling the pinch starting Nov. 1. Around 42 million Americans across the country receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. President Donald Trump’s administration is withholding funding for the program, arguing that it lacks the necessary authority to use contingency dollars due to the government shutdown.

“Now, more than ever, the Trump administration has made it clear that they have no interest in supporting American working families,” Meyer said. “Delaware families cannot eat political promises.”

Trump officials are blaming Democrats for the halt to food assistance and the shutdown. Congressional Democrats have said they will not vote to reopen the government unless there’s a spending compromise that continues subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans and restores Medicaid cuts.

“Bottom line, the well is dry,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service states on its website. “They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”

KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, said longstanding federal policy prohibits undocumented immigrants from enrolling in federally funded health insurance coverage, including Medicaid, Medicare, ACA plans and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Funding for SNAP has never before been cut during a government shutdown.

Meyer announced the state’s move to help SNAP recipients a day after state lawmakers from both parties asked him to use his authority to make up the $21 million a month shortfall left by the void of federal funding.

“It is unacceptable,” said state Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman. “We’re not going to stand by and let our constituents starve on our watch.”

Meyer said the state will do what it can to make sure Delawareans don’t go hungry, but it faces a tough fiscal picture due to expected loss of corporate income tax because of corporate giveaways in the “one big, beautiful bill.”

“We do not have the resources as a state government to fully fund every federal program that we anticipate will stop from, obviously SNAP, continuing Head Start, Women with Infants and Children,” he said. “We do not have the funds to fund all of those programs in perpetuity.”

Delaware has also filed a lawsuit against the federal government over its withholding of SNAP funding, along with New Jersey, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Washington, D.C. and dozens of other states. A court hearing for a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration is scheduled for Thursday morning.

Even though Wilmington, Delaware’s largest city, is located in New Castle County, an interactive map of SNAP recipients shows the county with the highest percentage of participants, 14.3% of households, is Kent County. Recipients in Sussex County in southern Delaware make up 10.6% of households, while 9.9% of households in New Castle County get SNAP benefits. Trump won Sussex and narrowly lost Kent in the 2024 election against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Harris won New Castle County by a wide margin.

Delaware Democratic Congresswoman Sarah McBride said earlier this month that the lack of funding for food assistance is a choice by the Trump administration.

“They have chosen to call these programs ‘Democrat programs,’ and they believe that they are punishing people who they presume didn’t vote for them in the last election,” she said. “That’s no way to govern a country and it’s no way to serve constituents.”

Meyer said the state will also provide additional support to the Food Bank of Delaware and he is encouraging Delawareans to donate to the food bank, other community food pantries and faith groups.