Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan recognizes that while the federal government may reopen fully this week, it could take some time for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to be made whole.
Speaking on Wednesday’s “First Coast Connect,” the first-term Democrat said “people are really hurting” and are “concerned that it will take a long time to get this back in the road, even once the government shutdown is over.”
“You never really know in D.C. when things are going to happen or not happen, but my hope is that there will be a vote today that would reopen the government and get all this stuff, at least starting, but it may be a month or so before people are actually starting to see their benefits again, and that could be really detrimental to folks,” Deegan said.
The Mayor’s comments come as the City Council will mull two bills that could bolster aid for the city’s hungry.
One bill (2025-0858), carried by a trio of Democrats, would allocate $2 million to Feeding Northeast Florida. Half of that money would come from the general fund, and half of it from City Council contingency reserves.
Another bill (2025-0857), championed by City Council President Kevin Carrico, would move $200,000 from the Budget Stabilization Reserve Contingency Account for the Duval County Emergency Food Distribution Initiative.
Deegan expects Council to embrace the Carrico product.
“In terms of these bills, I suspect that Council may be cautious until they know exactly what’s going on. So to me, just in conversations that I’ve had, it seems most likely that they would approve the smaller amount first and then see if there was a need to go back for a greater amount. But if … they found out today that this may be a longer ongoing issue, I think they might be willing to to think about the $2 million,” Deegan said.
