Governor Moore came to the Anne Arundel County Food Bank today to announce $10 million in funding for food banks across the state, and to sign a state of emergency executive order allowing additional state responses to the Trump administration’s decision to withhold the contingency funds that Congress appropriated to feed vulnerable Americans. My job was to introduce him, and here is what I said.
Welcome to Anne Arundel County and to the Anne Arundel County Food Bank at Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park. This is an extraordinarily efficient, independent nonprofit organization that relies on the financial support of the good people of Anne Arundel County and its county government to feed our residents when they face tough financial times.
Our Food Bank and the whole food distribution system that we created during COVID is bravely stepping up in response to a federal government that is trying to break us.
And our Office of Emergency Management is leading our interagency Federal Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Workgroup. This is an all-government response, just as we had during the pandemic.
The need for more food assistance started with deportations and illegal firings of federal workers. Then it moved into Trump’s government shutdown, with thousands of our federal workforce receiving no paychecks.
And now President Trump is escalating his war on the hard working people of our state and county who live paycheck to paycheck or social security check to social security check, refusing to release the contingency funds that Congress appropriated, specifically to fund SNAP during a crisis like this.
In Anne Arundel County, that prevents 41,847 recipients, including 22,430 households, 17,031 children, and 5,231 seniors from buying their groceries. In Maryland, it’s over 680,000 recipients, including nearly 270,000 children.
Throughout history we’ve seen rulers use hunger as a weapon. Whether it’s against an enemy or their own people, the goal is to starve into submission, and it’s cruel.
That’s why blocking food assistance is a war crime under international law. Today in America we are facing a serious threat.
It’s at times like this that we in AA County appreciate the fact that we have a Governor who is both a soldier and a poverty fighter.
There is no question about whose side he is on in these battles to protect our people, whether it’s in support of the Western Maryland flood victims who were denied FEMA support, or the federal workers and contractors whose lives have been upended by the Republican assault on public service.
Wes Moore and his extraordinary staff have stood firmly with the people.
I am not at all surprised to find him here on the sacred ground of Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park, at the Anne Arundel County Food Bank, sorting food for distribution, and presenting concrete plans to defend our people in their time of need.
Welcome Governor Moore. We are so glad that you’re here.
After the Governor spoke, the press asked him why he’s not raiding the rainy day fund and seeking more money. He stuck to his talking points, and didn’t get into what might or might not happen next. This is a war, and there’s no need for the general to speculate on what tactics might come next.
What we all know is that as cruel and horrific as the temporary withholding of SNAP benefits is to people of conscience, it’s the massive cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that will hit nearly all of our people. Those are strategically timed to take effect after the 2026 election.
Governors who care about the future of their states must practice fiscal discipline. Governor Youngkin gleefully raided the Virginia rainy day fund and blamed Democrats for the need to do it, because he knows that in a few short weeks Abigail Spanberger will replace him. It was a political play that will hurt his state in the coming years.
If you catch me playing that game next year, call me out as a hypocrite.
Next week we’ll have our own announcement. Our Federal Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Workgroup is putting final touches on a plan to deploy a food distribution program similar to what we had during COVID. We’ll announce it next week, unless the President decides, or is forced by the courts, to comply with the law and release the SNAP benefits to the people who depend on them.
In the meantime, please consider contributing money and food to Anne Arundel County Food Bank if you have anything to spare. We must be there for our neighbors. It’s what we do.
Until next week…