Five U.S. States Declare Emergency After Food Aid Suspension
According to the English section of webangah News Agency, citing Mehr News Agency and Axios, several states including New York, Delaware, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Maryland have declared emergencies due to the federal government shutdown and halted payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
this move comes as nearly 42 million people nationwide risk losing their nutritional benefits if the shutdown persists. Data through October 31,2025,shows that among all fifty states,sixteen have allocated additional funding to food banks; two have provided direct financial aid to households; eight are combining both approaches. Meanwhile, twenty-five states have yet to announce choice support measures.
In New York, Governor kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Thursday. She stated that about three million residents in her state will lose benefits this week alone. The federal government had been providing nearly $650 million monthly for this program in New York.
Hochul emphasized that “no state can fully replace such an amount.” She announced a $65 million state budget allocation for emergency food assistance. Criticizing the Trump administrationS handling of the crisis, she said: “That people suffer because Republicans refuse to release emergency food resources is immoral.”
Maryland’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore also issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency and allocated $10 million in emergency funds to strengthen the state’s food security networks. In a statement he said: “Blocking funding for food aid is not onyl illegal but cruel.”
The U.S. department of Agriculture announced last week that it cannot use contingency reserves to pay SNAP benefits during the shutdown and warned states that if they cover costs using their own budgets there will be no federal reimbursement.
This stance places manny states in a challenging position since deploying internal emergency funds without guaranteed repayment poses legal and financial challenges.
