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.