‘Blindsided’: Delawareans cope with food insecurity as federal judge orders Trump administration to resume full SNAP payments

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Delawareans facing food insecurity lined up outside the Wilmington YMCA Thursday morning, including Janasia Copling, her husband and 1-year-old daughter. Coping said the family has yet to receive their November food stamp benefits.

“It really blindsided us,” she said.

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer declared a state of emergency last week so the state could issue partial payments, starting Friday, to help fill the void left by the federal government. Late Thursday, a Rhode Island district judge ordered the Trump administration to restore full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by Friday, but the Department of Justice told the court it would appeal the decision, leaving program participants in limbo.

Around 42 million Americans across the country rely on SNAP to help pay for groceries each month, including 118,200 people in Delaware.

President Donald Trump’s administration froze benefits for the program to force congressional Democrats to vote to reopen the government. Democrats have said they want Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies restored in exchange for funding the government.

Copling said the gamesmanship in Washington, D.C., has major consequences for everyday people.

“With politics, everything is you know, more so with the big guys,” she said. “They’re not worried about us little people. But it’s affecting us very badly.”

Coping said she usually gets around $530 a month from SNAP. With Coping unemployed and her husband only working part-time, she said they depend on the antihunger program to get by.

“Everything is super high already, so trying to find affordable groceries is difficult as is,” she said. “So when you have no money whatsoever, it’s really hard.”

State lawmakers, New Castle County Executive Marcus Henry and Wilmington Mayor John Carney joined business leaders and volunteers to give out boxes of food at the YMCA and raise awareness of those going hungry during the federal government shutdown.

“We’re all here to reflect on the fact that we have so many families facing impossible choices when it comes to feeding their families, versus other commitments that they need to be making with their limited resources,” Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman said Thursday.

State Sen. Darius Brown said Delaware families should never have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.

“Yet this is the reality for too many of our neighbors, that they’re facing each and every day,” he said. “So when we enter periods of crisis, it is imperative that we band together as a community to help one another to ensure no child, no senior citizen and no working parent goes hungry.”

Thursday’s ruling by a Rhode Island judge ordered the Trump administration to use a Department of Agriculture emergency contingency fund to fully meet November’s SNAP benefit obligations, after it previously said it would only cover some of the usual amount as the shutdown has dragged into record-setting length.

Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center, said in a statement that she’s pleased with the judge’s ruling.

“It never should have gotten to this point,” she said. “From the very beginning, FRAC has made clear that the administration had the authority to issue full benefits but chose not to act.”