New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared a state of emergency on Wednesday over the impending halt in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding.
Starting Saturday, SNAP benefits for millions are set to dry up amid the ongoing government shutdown. Democrats have urged the administration to tap into a contingency fund for SNAP, but Trump officials argue they are legally restricted from spending the money as a shutdown stopgap.
“The Trump Administration is cutting food assistance off for three million New Yorkers, leaving our state to face an unprecedented public health crisis and hurting our grocers, bodegas and farmers along the way,” Hochul said in a release. “Unlike Washington Republicans, I won’t sit idly by as families struggle to put food on the table.”
Hochul’s declaration unlocks $65 million in state funding for programs that support food banks, pantries, soup kitchens and other resources. That includes $40 million for the state’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program, which works with emergency food providers, and $25 million for Nourish NY, which supplies surplus agricultural products to food relief organizations.
The New York governor has already fast-tracked $41 million in emergency food assistance.
Wednesday’s declaration also allows the Empire State Service Corps, along with State University of New York Corps, to provide increased support at the state’s food pantries. Short-term crisis response will also be created to support food pantries and banks with staffing shortages.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which allocates SNAP funding to states, said last week it will not use more than $5 billion in contingency funding to partially cover the estimated $9.2 billion in benefits for November. In Friday memo, the USDA said the fund could only be accessed in the wake of unforeseen events, such as natural disasters.
In a since-deleted shutdown plan the USDA published Sept. 30, though, the department noted it is congressionally mandated to allocate SNAP benefits via the contingency reserve amid a funding lapse.
Over 2.9 million New Yorkers, roughly 15 percent of the state’s population, received SNAP benefits in fiscal 2024, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank devoted to combatting poverty and inequality. Roughly 41.7 million people nationally received SNAP benefits monthly in the same period, according to the USDA.
As the Nov. 1 funding lapse approaches, states around the country are sounding the alarm. On Tuesday, all 43 Democrats in the Florida Legislature sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), asking him to declare a state of emergency on food insecurity.
Also on Tuesday, Hochul joined Democratic officials in 25 states and Washington, D.C., in suing the Trump administration over the impending pause in funding. The suit, filed in District Court in Massachusetts, alleges that USDA’s refusal to tap into the contingency funding to partially cover November SNAP benefits is illegal.
