Food stamps are back, but millions will soon lose benefits permanently

Millions of Americans greeted the end of the government shutdown — and the resumption of food stamp benefits — with relief. But others are learning they could soon lose federal food aid permanently.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins directed USDA staff during the record-setting 43-day shutdown to continue ushering states toward compliance with Republicans’ signature tax and spending law, which is projected to kick millions out of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program in the next few months.

Those changes, combined with other provisions in the new law, will represent the most significant cuts to the social safety net in decades. And it all comes as low-income families are confronting stagnating wages that aren’t keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living — an issue that some Republicans blamed for their losses in off-year elections this month.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides an average of $6 per day for nearly 42 million people, roughly 40 percent of whom are children. Under the new law, parents and older Americans will be required to meet stricter work requirements, and states eventually will have to share in the cost of SNAP benefits, which could force further program cuts, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Tens of thousands of legal immigrants will also lose access to the program under the law.

The loss of SNAP “was really stark during the shutdown,” said Dottie Rosenbaum, director of federal SNAP policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “But [the One Big Beautiful Bill Act] is the largest cut in the program's history. That is also going to be really deeply felt.”

States have started notifying participants they will be subject to new, tighter work requirements, setting up a three-month countdown for people to comply or lose benefits entirely.

Some states, like New York and California, have waivers that lift work requirements in places with high unemployment rates, which are expected to slow the full impact. But certain lawfully present immigrants, including refugees, are being notified that they are no longer eligible for SNAP, effective immediately. 

“While we are concerned about any person in this country going hungry needlessly, there is something spectacularly cruel about ripping out the safety net of people who came to this country who need just a little bit of time to get back on their feet and to begin to be able to contribute economically to this country,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of policy and advocacy at HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that assists refugees and asylum seekers.

HIAS estimates that the SNAP changes will cut benefits for roughly 250,000 refugees and other humanitarian visa holders.

Rollins has also indicated that she may press for current SNAP participants to reapply, despite existing requirements that participants regularly certify their incomes and other factors that determine eligibility. The new plan could add red tape that will make it more difficult to get benefits.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service issued new guidance in October and November during the shutdown on how to comply with tightened work requirements and follow other changes in the law, but some states are still struggling to interpret it. In California, where more than 5 million people use SNAP, California Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Troia said in a recent webinar that the state is still working through the new guidance.

“This is a priority for us,” Troia said. “We will move toward compliance with FNS guidance, while also balancing the need for accuracy and clarity.”

Millions of low-income families will also lose access to Medicaid in the next few years, when stricter work requirements and other changes for that program kick in. Republicans’ tax and spending law has made certain legal immigrants, including refugees, ineligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies. And the Trump administration is working on a new public charge regulation that could deter millions of lawfully present immigrants from participating in federal safety net programs.

As low-income people struggle to pay utility bills and make rent, many fall back on the charitable food network to help pay for groceries. But food banks and pantries are still scrambling to recover from nearly $1 billion in federal funding cuts earlier this year — and from the chaos resulting from the pause in SNAP benefits during the shutdown.

During the week of Oct. 27, food banks purchased 325 percent more food through Feeding America’s Grocery Purchase Program than during the same time last year, according to the nonprofit.

Matt Jozwiak, who runs Rethink Food, a charity meal organization in New York City, said his organization increased the number of meals it provided from between 40,000 to 50,000 per week to 120,000 during the shutdown.

“It could not be worse,” Jozwiak said. “This is just like what’s to come. This is bad, but [OBBA is] permanent.”

With hundreds of thousands of refugees and other immigrants bracing to be kicked off SNAP, some refugee resettlement organizations are offering more emergency food options to help fill the hole.

“We have a truck, we have a warehouse, and it made sense,” said Laura Thompson Osuri, executive director of Homes Not Borders, a Washington-area nonprofit that assists newly-arriving refugees. Her group is now focused on food security.

She says the OBBA changes will affect roughly 20,000 refugees in the Washington area.

Still, private-sector and nonprofit contributions won’t be enough when the SNAP changes go into full effect. According to Feeding America, SNAP provides nine meals for every one provided by food banks.

Cyndi Kirkhart, who runs Facing Hunger Food Bank in West Virginia, is worried about her organization’s ability to keep up.

“When I wrote my budget last year for this year, I sure didn't put this crisis in it,” Kirkhart said, referencing November’s benefits lapse. “Now, I'm going to anticipate there's going to be more crises, and I'll just have to budget more and hope that the same kinds of help and support line up. But at some point, everyone is affected by crises. So at what point do folks go, ‘I can't do any more,’ right?”