RELEASE: Statement on Federal SNAP-Ed Funding
On July 4th, President Trump signed his budget, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), into law. This legislation makes several massive cuts to social support programs across many sectors of American life; we are already seeing the direct impact to where we work. In addition to cutting $186 billion in funding over 10 years for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as “food stamps” or the Bridge Card here in Michigan, the bill also requires that the US Dept of Agriculture completely cut all funding for SNAP-Ed, the federal program that funds nutrition education for low-income individuals (see Section 10107 of H.R.1).
We facilitate several programs to supplement our food distributions, supporting guests in making healthier choices and improving their personal well-being. This includes nutrition education initiatives - our Cooking Matters series, the National Pantry Program, and Serving Wellness at Pantries (SWAP) - which are hosted by community partners that receive SNAP-Ed funding. For a guest in our pantry, these workshops and informational sessions provide opportunities to learn what nutritional indicators to look for when grocery shopping and ways to prepare nutritious meals with the food they receive from our pantry while on a tight budget. We added these educational programs to support positive health outcomes among our guests as 59% report chronic health conditions like diabetes and hypertension, conditions that rely on healthy diets to manage.
Federal policy affects us locally, and we anticipate further impacts from this legislation down the road. In addition to funding allocations, the law amends qualifying standards for SNAP, making it more difficult for people in need to get a Bridge Card: the law increases work requirements for parents, homeless individuals, veterans, and certain foster care individuals; raises the age cap on work requirements by 10 years; and removes the ability for states to request a temporary waiver to extend limits on SNAP recipients in areas with an insufficient number of available jobs (see Section 10102 of H.R.1). In other words, an unemployed, “able-bodied” 64-year-old who cannot find work because no jobs are available can only receive assistance for three months; previously, anyone older than 55 did not have work requirements to receive benefits for longer than three months.
Our pantry is open to anyone in our community who needs to stop in. Currently, more than half of our pantry guests have a Bridge Card and receive nutrition assistance. With the reduction in SNAP funding and inflation making it harder to purchase essentials, we expect to see an increase in pantry visitors in the coming months, stretching our resources. The USDA already froze dairy funding earlier this year, and in March eliminated two food assistance programs that helped schools and community groups purchase products directly from farmers (the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement helped food banks supply food to their communities).
Food security is a right. We are disheartened that we are forced to cease elements of our programming until further notice, we do this work because we believe that connection and community make us strong. We’re analyzing if we can continue certain programs with our current capacity and expand partnerships to meet the need; we hope to continue sharing nutrition information via SWAP but will not have the means to facilitate in-person programming like Cooking Matters on our own.