More than five million people have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits since President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year. The bill cut SNAP funding, expanded work requirements and recently pushed more program costs to states. As Stephanie Sy reports, that’s meant many more people are turning to food banks for support.
Geoff Bennett:
More than five million people have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits since President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year. The bill cut SNAP funding, expanded work requirements, and recently pushed more program costs to states.
And, as Stephanie Sy reports, that’s meant many more people are turning to food banks for support.
Stephanie Sy:
Seventy-year-old Joan Steenburgh rarely misses her weekly trips to the food pantry. In rural Hanover, Virginia, she visits Moments of Hope to supplement SNAP benefits for herself and the two children she cares for.
Joan Steenburgh, SNAP Recipient:
Now my food stamps have been cut from $500 a month to $300. I would expect the most people that are politicians, $300 meal would be nothing to them. But you expect for us to raise two healthy children for $300 a month. It’s no way possible that you can do that unless you have help.
Stephanie Sy:
More than 100,000 Virginians have lost their SNAP benefits in the last year. And in Central Virginia, SNAP participation is down more than 15 percent.
Dennis Hatchett, CEO, Feed More:
When SNAP changes, people are forced to either not eat or access food banks.
Stephanie Sy:
Dennis Hatchett is the head of hunger relief organization Feed More supporting food pantries across the region. He says, in the last year, he’s seen a 20 percent increase in visits to local food pantries.
Dennis Hatchett:
Can food banks be a substitution for SNAP? I’d have to tell you, absolutely not. They’re meant to work in conjunction. SNAP is the single most effective means of fighting food insecurity, and food banks are here to provide a supplement at the end of the month.
Stephanie Sy:
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is projected to cut $186 billion in federal spending on SNAP over the next decade.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record off, of food stamps.
(CHEERING)
Stephanie Sy:
The law raised the age limit to be exempt from SNAP work requirements from 55 to 65 and increased the amount of paperwork required to stay enrolled. And starting next year, states with higher SNAP error rates will lose federal funding and have to pick up part of the benefit costs.
In the last year, almost every state has seen a decline in people enrolled in SNAP. And many still eligible are receiving much lower benefits.
Betty Hayes, Moments of Hope Food Pantry: We have people that are getting as low as $17 a month in food stamps or SNAP benefits.
Stephanie Sy:
Betty Hayes runs Moments of Hope Food Pantry. She says client visits have doubled in the last two years, but her neighbors’ support will help them get by.
Betty Hayes:
At the beginning of the year in my back warehouse, I had enough surplus, a two-month window. So if I could not get any more food, I had two months’ worth of nonperishable items that I could make it through with the clients that we had. I have two weeks’ worth of food in the back warehouse.
I think the community will step in because the community has stepped in before. And I have never run out of food. We just keep on going.
Stephanie Sy:
The Trump administration says the changes will cut waste and fraud and decrease dependency on government assistance, a stance echoed by Republican lawmakers.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):
I make this very clear. We are not cutting Medicaid. We are not cutting SNAP. We’re working on the elements of fraud, waste and abuse.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN):
Every dollar from this program is intended to help feed eligible individuals in need. That’s not where every dollar goes, not by a long shot.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL):
These programs have massive waste, fraud, and abuse in them. Democrats don’t want to tackle them. Republicans do.
Stephanie Sy:
But Dennis Hatchett says the people Feed More serves rely on SNAP to put food on the table.
Dennis Hatchett:
There’s this misconception that people who are on SNAP don’t need SNAP. What we’re finding is that the vast majority of people who are accessing SNAP are working. They’re asset-limited, income-constrained, employed people. We have got stats that show as many as you know 50, 60 percent of the people who are accessing our food banks are people who are working one, two, even three jobs.
Stephanie Sy:
And Joan Steenburgh, a former nurse, says with less money for food, she now may have to go back to work.
Joan Steenburgh:
Well, I have worked for all, what are you talking about, 30 years in nursing or taking care of people. And now, instead of me sitting back and enjoying life, I have got to get a job to be able to raise enough money and be 70 years old and have to get a part-time job at this point in your life again to be able to make ends meet.
Stephanie Sy:
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Stephanie Sy.
