A budget is a clear picture of priorities: the projects a legislature decides to fund with finite state resources show what it values. Even with hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs hurtling at them to keep Florida children from going hungry — and as the number of Florida kids enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dropped by more than 247,000 compared to just one year ago — somehow the Florida state legislature found $2.75 million to put Donald Trump’s name on the airport serving Mar-a-Lago.
When Congress passed H.R. 1 in July 2025, it put in motion the largest cut to SNAP in history: $187 billion over 10 years. Combined with hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the cuts financed another round of enormous tax breaks that go predominantly to the wealthiest households in America while depriving the poorest kids of the nutrition assistance and health care they need to reach their fullest potential.
The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” for the first time, shifted the responsibility of paying for SNAP benefits from the federal government to the states, and it also increased the portion of administrative costs states must cover. The latter shift went into effect on October 1, 2026 – and will cost the state of Florida $50 million.
State governments — particularly state human services departments and SNAP administrators — are bracing for this significant shock to their state budgets. The shift essentially amounts to an unfunded mandate from the federal government and will require states to come up with hundreds of millions — in some cases, billions — more in state funding to keep SNAP benefits funded and administrative costs covered.
Kids on SNAP are down, requests for help are up
The anticipation of this massive cost shift coincides with a precipitous drop in nationwide SNAP enrollment. More than 5 million fewer people are enrolled in SNAP one year after passage of H.R. 1 compared to when it was signed into law. This includes well over 1.5 million children. This change in SNAP enrollment is not explained by improving economic conditions, especially for the children and families that rely on SNAP. Grocery prices are higher; the unemployment rate remains over 4%; and though wages have ticked up, stronger gains have accrued to higher-income households — not to SNAP-eligible incomes.
What does explain the sudden drop in SNAP participation? A recent survey conducted by the American Public Human Services Association, which represents state officials responsible for administering SNAP, found that states are already taking steps that reduce SNAP enrollment. That includes tighter interview and verification requirements, prioritization of payment accuracy at the expense of timely case processing, elimination of streamlined procedures like self-attestation, and reductions in outreach and staffing.
Though the Trump Administration claims they have “moved people off of SNAP” — the suggestion being that families’ economic situations have improved such that they no longer need SNAP — the actual data tells a different story. States have reported that requests for public assistance are increasing, which directly contradicts the narrative peddled by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that “people don’t need food stamps.” In North Carolina, applications for SNAP held steady even as enrollment declined and food pantry usage increased. In Arizona, which has seen the largest drop in SNAP participation in the country, food pantry usage hit record highs even as SNAP enrollment plummeted. And in Texas, the number of uninitiated SNAP applications sitting in the state’s queue rose from 4,000 in January 2026 to 126,000 in July.
Florida food banks sound the alarm
In Florida, where SNAP enrollment dropped by 648,000 (including 247,000 kids) from July 2025 to July 2026, requests for public assistance increased by 15.2%. Food pantry usage has skyrocketed in Florida, underscoring the degree of desperation for families to put food on the table. In Miami, food pantry lines are the longest they’ve been in 30 years, according to the founder and director of the food bank Curley’s House. The CEO of Feeding Northeast Florida reported a 20% increase in visitors to food distribution events this spring compared with the first quarter of 2025. The network’s 420 partner organizations were reporting that they were increasingly running out of food and turning households away. In Central Florida, Second Harvest’s senior director of advocacy said demand at its affiliated pantries “skyrocketed” following passage of H.R. 1, while about 131,000 Central Floridians had fallen off SNAP. Second Harvest is now distributing enough food for about 300,000 meals every day across seven counties.
During this exact one year timeframe, in which SNAP enrollment plummeted and demand soared for help putting food on the table, the Florida state legislature passed legislation in March 2026 to rename the West Palm Beach airport to the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” It then passed separate legislation in June 2026 to fund the renaming — a $2.75 million cost to Florida taxpayers even as state officials warned that impending cuts from H.R. 1 threatened the SNAP program’s operational capacity.
For millions of kids, including almost a quarter-million in Florida, SNAP goes beyond nutrition. It provides critical support for their health, education, and overall well-being. Though the legislature also covered the administrative cost shift for 2027, how the state will make up the $900 million it will need in fiscal year 2028 to ensure children and families continue receiving the SNAP benefits they need is an enormous question mark. Although the nearly $3 million allocated to the airport renaming is a drop in a $900 million bucket, the legislature has already shown us that they think putting Donald Trump’s name on an airport is a worthy expenditure even as child hunger in Florida is exploding.