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Robyn Merrill is the executive director of Maine Equal Justice, a nonprofit civil legal aid and economic justice organization. Mark Swann is the executive director at Preble Street, a statewide organization providing accessible barrier-free services to empower people experiencing problems with homelessness, hunger, and poverty. Justin Strasburger is the executive director of Full Plates Full Potential, a statewide nonprofit working to strengthen child nutrition programs. Maine Equal Justice, Preble Street, and Full Plates Full Potential are members of the Hunger Free Maine Coalition.
Everyone deserves to eat in America; everyone deserves enough food to thrive. And yet, this week the federal government dealt another blow to the biggest source of food security in Maine and our country, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Congress has failed to pass a spending bill for 2026, and the resulting government shutdown has led to chaos and confusion for SNAP and other nutrition programs at a time when Maine is already facing a looming hunger and financial crisis resulting from the budget reconciliation law bill passed in July.
After a memo from the Trump Administration instructed states to hold SNAP benefits, Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that the 170,000 people who use SNAP to buy food won’t receive benefits next month. While food security advocates press for funds to be moved to avoid devastating consequences if SNAP isn’t funded, we also realize November is a dress rehearsal for what’s to come.
H.R.1, the budget passed by congressional Republicans with support from the administration, extends tax breaks for billionaires and cuts federal funding for SNAP and Medicaid, shifting the cost of millions of SNAP dollars onto the State of Maine for the first time in the program’s history. Hundreds of thousands of Mainers were already facing an uncertain future, one with bare tables and empty plates. This new, more immediate threat just brings that future closer.
SNAP is one of the nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and exists because of our country’s long-standing commitment to ensure everyone, no matter their income, has enough to eat. When SNAP funding is held hostage, Mainers from all walks of life — children, families, older adults — will face impossible decisions between paying for food, heat, housing, and medicine. SNAP is also an unsung but essential support for rural economies in Maine, generating $1.50 for every $1 in SNAP spent.
BrennaMae Googins, owner of Patch Farm in Denmark in Oxford County, told us that 20% to 30% of their customers shop with SNAP and can’t afford their produce without it. If SNAP is cut, the farm won’t be able to continue growing and selling their produce in the same way. Staff hours could be cut or lost. One little girl, who regularly visits her stand and asks for a “weird vegetable” recommendation every week, will no longer be able to buy her produce using her family’s EBT card. Where will Googins’ replace 30% of her income in November and where will 20% of her community get food?
Sandy Swett, executive director of Harrison Food Pantry, delivers food to around 400 households and knows that rural families will be the most affected. “If they take away SNAP benefits, we’re going to see a lot more [people] and our food supplies have been cut drastically.”
For every meal served by food pantries, SNAP provides nine. Despite their critical role, food pantries cannot replace SNAP and cannot meet even a fraction of the demand for emergency food assistance. The Harrison Food Pantry, like all food pantries, won’t be able to make up for the loss of SNAP.
If SNAP is our first line of defense against hunger, food pantries are our last, and they aren’t equipped to fill the resulting meal gap left by any SNAP cut. Hunger is a policy choice and our lawmakers can choose to prevent food insecurity rather than expecting volunteers to fill an ever widening meal gap.
Our members of Congress must press the Trump Administration to immediately release SNAP contingency funds and transfer additional federal funds to SNAP to avoid any reduction in November benefits. It is unacceptable for children, seniors, and families to go hungry, or for Mainers to be asked to choose between getting enough to eat and affording their health care.
When the shutdown ends, we will still have work to do to restore the SNAP program to fully meet our nation’s and our state’s commitment to ending hunger.
