SALISBURY, Md. – The Maryland Food Bank’s Eastern Shore branch unveiled a new refrigerated trailer Friday, but a bigger concern looms as a federal fight over food aid could leave more families turning to charity for help.
The Trump administration has said it will begin withholding money that helps states run the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, if they do not share more detailed data on people who receive benefits. The dispute targets largely Democratic-led states, including Maryland, that have resisted the request over privacy concerns and questions about how the information could be used.
“It is a very large program and it is very important in stabilizing families and our local economies,” said Meg Kimmel, chief executive officer of the Maryland Food Bank. She said that for every meal the charitable food system provides, SNAP accounts for roughly nine, which makes federal benefits the backbone of the food safety net, not an optional extra.
Kimmel said demand for help in Maryland has stayed at historically high levels since the pandemic and has recently started climbing again. The food bank’s Salisbury facility serves eight Eastern Shore counties through a network of local pantries and feeding programs that rely on both donated food and government support. If states lose the federal dollars they use to administer SNAP, advocates warn, it could slow down applications, strain caseworkers and make it harder for families to access the benefits they qualify for.
The administration argues that it needs more detailed recipient data, including immigration information, to crack down on fraud. Most Republican-led states have already turned over the data, while a coalition of Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia has sued to block the request. A federal judge has temporarily put enforcement on hold, but Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has continued to threaten a cutoff of administrative funds for states that do not comply.
Kimmel said the Maryland Food Bank is planning for the long term alongside state officials, anticipating the possibility of shrinking or disrupted federal support. She said the community often steps up when there is a crisis, pointing to local donors, volunteers and businesses that help keep food moving when government systems falter. During the recent government shutdown, the food bank and its partners ramped up distribution while courts ordered the federal government to restore SNAP benefits that had been delayed.
That community partnership was on display again in Salisbury with the arrival of the new refrigerated “pup” trailer, funded by a Food Lion Feeds capital grant. The smaller truck is designed to reach tighter parking lots and rural roads, picking up perishable items from farms and grocery stores and delivering them to pantries across the Shore. Food Lion officials say the trailer will serve stores and neighborhoods from Wicomico County through about 16 local locations.
Kimmel said equipment like the new trailer adds capacity at a time when the food bank expects more people to seek help if the SNAP fight continues. But she stressed that trucks and donations alone cannot replace a federal program that helps an estimated 42 million people nationwide buy groceries, or about one in eight Americans.
“Everyone watching this segment has a local food pantry in their community,” Kimmel said. “They might need volunteers, they might need a financial donation. It really takes the whole system working together to make sure people can put meals on the table, especially when there is uncertainty about the benefits they rely on.”
