Rep. Michele Meyer, D-Eliot, is a registered nurse and the House chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. She is serving her fourth term in the Maine House and represents Eliot, part of Kittery and part of South Berwick.

The Trump administration recently announced that states, including ours, will not receive critical funding to prevent Mainers and their families from going hungry.

The president and his allies in Congress shut down the federal government by refusing to preserve the health insurance tax credits that Maine families depend on to afford their health insurance. And now, because of the ongoing shutdown, the nation’s largest anti-hunger program will grind to a halt just a few days from now.

Nearly 170,000 Mainers rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to put food on the table. That is roughly one in eight Maine residents. More than half of these households include a person with a disability and over one-third include children.

For so many families, this basic food assistance means the ability to put food on the table — to be able to send their kids to school with breakfast in their bellies or feed an aging loved one.

I know firsthand what this means to struggling families. At one point in my life, it meant the same to me and my own children.

Thirty-eight years ago, I was a struggling single mom of two, pursuing a nursing degree full time in hopes of a better future for my kids. I worked hard and stretched every dollar we had, but as a low-income family of three, we were barely getting by.

During that difficult time for our family, food assistance made the difference. 

I know that my family could not have afforded going a month — or honestly, even an extra week — without this critical assistance. But the longer that President Trump and his allies in Congress refuse to reopen the government, the longer Maine families will be forced to choose between buying groceries and paying for housing, heat or much-needed medication.

Since the time when I, too, depended on food assistance to keep my kids fed and a roof over our head, the cost of living has only risen, burdening working families and people on fixed incomes more and more.

Maine people deserve leaders who will fight tooth and nail to make sure they can afford life’s necessities — and there are no more fundamental, basic human needs than food and health care. It’s truly the bare minimum we should expect from those we elect. But instead, so-called leaders in Washington are making life even more expensive and more difficult for the average Mainer.

Simply put, it is unconscionable to think that Maine people will go hungry because of the shutdown. Now is the time for the president and congressional Republicans to stop hurting working families, reverse their cuts to health care and finally end this senseless political game so that programs like SNAP can resume helping those who need it most.

If you rely on SNAP, please know any remaining benefits you have previously received are still available to use to purchase food, and the state of Maine continues to process applications and renewals. You can sign up for future updates from the Department of Health and Human Services through the My Maine Connection portal.

While we wait for the federal government to finally do the right thing, 211 Maine is available to help connect Mainers with other available resources in our local communities. Please do not hesitate to reach out for support.

And for those who are in a position to help, please consider this: At this moment, there are families in your community — older folks, people with disabilities, veterans, perhaps even someone you love — who are frightened and struggling with the news that the support they rely on to stay fed is delayed indefinitely.

Now, in the face of this needless harm, is the time to show who we truly are as Mainers. Now is the time to extend a helping hand to our neighbors in need — and to demand the Trump administration end the shutdown.