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Food banks across the country are facing challenges in obtaining food and getting it to the people who need it, as both they and the people they serve confront higher fuel and food prices and less government assistance.
In many states, as well, changes to the eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and looming cost-shifting requirements in SNAP in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act have resulted in people losing their SNAP benefits, forcing them to seek charitable help. In addition, states that are faced with having to pay part of the benefits of the programs starting next year, depending on their payment error rates, may be less able to provide funding for food assistance.
“The general feeling of nonprofits that specialize in food access is a forecast of increased need as we see people have reduced access to benefits,” says Marissa Hunt, executive director of Manna in Durango, Colorado, which provides free food and a variety of other resources in La Plata County in the southwestern part of the state.
At the same time, Manna and other nonprofits are operating with fewer resources “because some of those funding streams that also support food access have become less or just not available at all,” she says.
The OBBBA will require states to pick up 75% of the administrative costs of the program starting in October. The size of the benefits payments, which kick in a year later, will depend on how far above 6% or higher their states’ payment error rates are.
The Trump administration has touted the steep drop in the SNAP recipient population, which has fallen by more than 4 million people, or about 11%, since the OBBBA went into effect in July 2025, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "In the 17 states with publicly available data or that have shared unpublished data, the number of children receiving SNAP has fallen by about 1 million since July 2025," CBPP says.
OBBBA’s expansion of the categories of people required to work or volunteer 20 hours a week in order to receive benefits has made it more difficult for some people to qualify for benefits, given the tight job market.
The OBBBA lowered the age for the work requirements from 64 to 55. It also eliminated the work/volunteer exemption for caregivers with children under 18; OBBBA lowered that to under 14.
Shutdown led to 'uncertainty' among SNAP recipients
Some of the issues for SNAP recipients began last fall, when the government shutdown led to the program being shut down for about six weeks.
“We've had government shutdowns before, but SNAP didn't go away,” says Cyndi Kirkhart, executive director of Facing Hunger Food Bank in Huntington, West Virginia. “So then suddenly, there was an uncertainty that they had never experienced.”
“There's still a lot of demand, but also just trepidation about trying to access this program because of all of the changes,” Hunt says.
“We've seen a significant decrease in people seeking SNAP benefits, mostly out of not understanding the new work qualifications or already having been denied, or not feeling like it's worth the trouble and the red tape,” she says.
Pressure is building in Congress to delay the administrative and benefit cost-shifting provisions in the OBBBA so states can determine whether they have the resources to comply with those.
“Taking more time makes a lot of sense,” says Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank. “Delaying the cost-share for another two years could give us that time to understand if the states' budgets can support it. And I think the fear is: Are there states that you know just can't support it, and does that mean they're not participating in SNAP?”
“I absolutely think that the cost-shift should be delayed to give states more time to plan and budget,” said Christie Jordan, CEO of Northeast Arkansas Food Bank. “The states with the highest error rates have been given more time. Why shouldn't the states with lower error rates be given the same consideration?”
Jordan was referring to the OBBBA’s language giving states with an error rate above 13.34% a two-year delay in having to contribute to benefits. The provision was included to gain the support of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, for the OBBBA.
Cooper and other food assistance providers worry that they simply can’t keep up with increased demand. Cooper says the number of people seeking food has gone from about 120,000 per week to about 140,000. "SNAP is probably the biggest factor" in the increase, he said.
“I'm struggling to have enough food to meet the need, and struggling to have enough of the right foods to meet the need,” he says. For example, “At times we might have the marinara, but we don't have the pasta.”
Cooper notes that in Texas, SNAP participation has fallen 16% since passage of the OBBBA.
“We're not stocked to be able to have the inventory needed to make up” a loss of that size, he says. “I worry that the charitable food system is not going to make a difference.”
Stagnant funding for federal programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which provides a monthly food box to seniors, also is a factor.
“TEFAP is our entitlement appropriation, and that that baseline has stayed fixed,” says Joree Novotny, executive director at the Ohio Association of Food Banks.
“The reality is that if our appropriations at the federal and state level for programs that support farmers and families facing hunger stay stagnant, they don't stretch as far. So it means fewer pounds ultimately in the warehouse,” Novotny said.
As an example, she cited the CSFP, which has had “a fixed appropriation that doesn't adjust for inflation. That's a fixed headcount program for seniors with very limited incomes. We’ve had to reduce headcount in that program because the same appropriation gets us less food in the door to service those seniors.”
Novotny, Jordan and other providers also stressed the importance of passing a farm bill.
"We're focused on passing a new farm bill," Jordan said. "We know in Arkansas that farmers are suffering, and we need a strong farm economy to ensure that the United States is food secure. Being an agricultural state, we recognize what an impact that could have on everyone, and so that's where our primary focus is right now."
Jobs scarce as costs keep rising
A tight job market and higher energy and food costs are particularly difficult for people in rural areas who need the hunger assistance SNAP provides, food assistance providers say.
Kirkhart, in West Virginia, tells a story about a woman in Mingo County, where employment opportunities are scarce, trying to find a job to meet the requirement for work hours.
“She went everywhere she could think of and couldn't get additional work hours,” Kirkhart said. She ended up at a pizza parlor. “They said they didn't have work for her, they couldn't pay her, and she asked them if she could volunteer for them. So basically, she's working for free.
Cyndi Kirkhart (Facing Hunger Foodbank photo)“I don't think this is how it's supposed to work out,” said Kirkhart, who also noted the difficulty of budgeting for higher fuel costs.
"We were used to a 100-gallon tank would be $350 and then suddenly it's right at $600, and I have to pay for that so that we can get food out. My budget that was written in October of last year did not anticipate $6 a gallon diesel."
All the providers said they try to partner with local farmers to obtain surplus commodities that they cannot sell or may be at risk of going bad.
“We're working with our local supply chain, and trying to fill the gaps that were left by [elimination of] programs like the Local Food Purchase Assistance program,” said Hunt of Manna in Colorado. “So, trying to raise funds and take food purchasing into our own hands and with that, make sure that we're keeping those dollars in our local economy, helping our local farmers, making sure that we can also provide food that is high quality and nutritious.”
The Trump administration cut about $1 billion for the LFPA and Local Food for Schools programs.
“There was a lot of funding that was being provided by the federal government for organizations like Manna and food access organizations to purchase local food from local farmers,” Hunt said. “That that was a great help because it helped small-town rural farmers like the ones in Southwest Colorado, and also put fresh, nutritious food on our shelves.”
Cooper says not enough attention is being paid to wages.
“I think that side of the conversation is being left out,” he says. “If you want to reduce the number of people on SNAP, I think as a country we should be thinking about how do we get our wages high enough that they sustain someone without needing SNAP, and I think that's a conversation I'd like to see more happening in Washington.”
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This article has been corrected to say that pressure is increasing in Congress to delay the cost-shifting provisions.
