{"id":25028,"date":"2025-10-29T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/25028\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T12:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:00:14","slug":"pressure-mounts-on-desantis-to-prevent-hunger-crisis-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/25028\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure mounts on DeSantis to prevent hunger crisis | Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Democrats in the Legislature are imploring Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency and use state money to buy food and direct it to food pantries as nearly 3 million people lose access to a federal food assistance program.<\/p>\n

Led by Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, and her House counterpart Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, legislative Democrats sent DeSantis a letter<\/a> Tuesday asking him to use his emergency powers to ensure the millions of Floridians who rely on the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program don\u2019t go hungry when their benefits expire Saturday as a result of the federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n

The letter also asks DeSantis to direct the Department of Children and Families, which administers the SNAP program<\/a>, to coordinate with local food banks and their community partners to distribute the food immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor families already struggling under record food and housing costs, the loss of this critical support would be catastrophic,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cLocal food banks and pantries have already reported overwhelming demand and depleted supplies. \u2026 We are days away from a full-blown hunger emergency that will leave families without food during the holiday season. The state cannot stand by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried added in a separate written statement: \u201cThis moment is bigger than politics. This is about showing up for our fellow Americans and keeping Floridians safe and fed.\u201d<\/p>\n

SNAP provides nutritional support for low-income seniors, people with disabilities living on fixed incomes, and other individuals and families with low incomes. Florida has the fourth largest SNAP enrollment nationwide with 2.94 million relying on the assistance for their food security, behind California, Texas, and New York. Nationwide, 41.7 million people rely on SNAP benefits, August 2025 data show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office didn\u2019t immediately respond to Florida Phoenix\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

The Democrats\u2019 letter comes after the DeSantis administration posted a notice that SNAP benefits are about to expire.<\/p>\n

The state notice was put up after the U.S. Department of Agriculture posted Friday that it would not tap into $6 billion in contingency funds<\/a> to keep benefits intact for the coming month. It would take $9 billion to cover the costs of the SNAP program through November. But the federal memo, first reported by Axios, claims that SNAP contingency funds cannot be used to float the program during the shutdown, an assertion that has been disputed.<\/p>\n

Contingency funds \u201care only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover, benefits. The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists,\u201d the memo says.<\/p>\n

The partisan impasse has resulted in a 28-day government shutdown, which began Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSNAP is one of the most effective programs for addressing hunger and food insecurity in the state,\u201d the letter from the Democrats stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially after the recent cuts stemming from President Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill, Floridians cannot afford another day without action by the state. Florida has the fiscal strength to respond. What\u2019s needed now is the moral will to act. No parent should have to choose between paying rent and feeding their kids. No child should go hungry because politicians in Washington can\u2019t agree. We urge you to act immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeartless\u201d<\/p>\n

Berman said in prepared remarks that Florida has $5 billion in its \u201crainy day\u201d fund that DeSantis could use to avert the food cliff low-income families face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sudden loss of those benefits would be an economic and humanitarian nightmare,\u201d she said. \u201cWith the stroke of a pen, the Governor can keep food on peoples\u2019 tables. He has a responsibility to the people of this state to put partisanship aside and lead. Refusing to act would be truly heartless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driskell said in her prepared remarks that the governor \u201cbrags\u201d about \u201cmaxing out\u201d the amount of savings in the state\u2019s \u201crainy day\u201d fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf millions of hungry Floridians isn\u2019t an economic storm, I don\u2019t know what is,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cThis is a crisis but an entirely solvable one. We can make sure Floridians do not go hungry. It costs a little more than $6 a day to feed someone. Isn\u2019t every Floridian worth that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter also asks the governor to request the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to implement the universal school meals programs for the duration of the emergency.<\/p>\n

This report first appeared on the website<\/a> of the Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to coverage of state government and politics from Tallahassee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Democrats in the Legislature are imploring Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency and use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[613,19068,19064,28,19060,19069,30,29,19065,3535,19062,14789,19066,16765,126,15134,19061,19063,412,11732,19067],"class_list":["post-25028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-department-of-children-and-families","tag-emergency-food-assistance","tag-federal-food-assistance-program","tag-florida","tag-florida-food-aid","tag-florida-food-banks","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-food-cliff-low-income-families","tag-food-insecurity","tag-global-hunger-index","tag-hunger","tag-hunger-crisis-florida","tag-islander-news","tag-key-biscayne","tag-local-food-banks","tag-neuropsychology","tag-nutritional-support","tag-ron-desantis","tag-snap-benefits","tag-snap-benefits-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}