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More Than Three Million People Have Lost Federal Food Aid

The number of food-stamp recipients is dropping sharply across the country as states move to implement new Trump administration rules on who qualifies.

Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has decreased by nearly 3.5 million people since stricter eligibility requirements were enacted last July, federal data show. Some states, including Arizona, are seeing dramatic declines in the numbers of SNAP recipients.

Under the new rules, able-bodied adults aged 18 to 64 without children under 14 must work, volunteer or participate in approved job-training programs for at least 80 hours a month. The previous age limit for work requirements was 54, and allowed exemptions for adults with children under 18.

Immigrants who enter or remain in the country illegally have never been eligible for SNAP benefits, but the new rules end eligibility for certain non-U.S. citizens in the country with legal permission.

Last fiscal year, an average of 42.1 million people, including children, received monthly SNAP benefits at a total cost of $101.7 billion, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, which oversees the program.

Monthly enrollment began a sustained drop in July 2025, when President Trump’s tax and spending megabill became law, federal data show. In January, the latest available federal data showed the number of people receiving benefits had dropped to 38.5 million, a decrease of more than 8% over around six months.

In Arizona, which incorporated the new rules immediately after the legislation’s passage, the number of SNAP recipients has fallen by roughly 50%, according to state data.

Brett Bezio, a spokesman for Arizona’s Department of Economic Security, which administers the program there, said work-requirement changes were the primary driver of the drop.

Colleen Heflin, a professor at Syracuse University who studies food insecurity, said larger state drops like Arizona’s were “beyond anything we’ve ever seen.” Heflin said she was concerned it would result in vulnerable Americans not getting enough to eat.

“These large state drops in SNAP caseloads represent a fundamental restructuring of the food-assistance safety net,” she said. “We should expect to see a surge in food insecurity and its related negative consequences at new levels.”

A spokesperson for the USDA said the department would continue “to serve those with the greatest need,” while also working to prevent waste and fraud. The shift, the spokesperson said, largely reflected the most expansive work-requirement changes to the program in decades.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the tighter work requirements will reduce spending on SNAP by $68.6 billion over roughly the next decade. The office also estimated it would result in an around 2.4 million fewer people receiving monthly SNAP benefits over that period.

Some states, like Virginia, which has seen a 13% drop in SNAP recipients since last summer, say they are seeking to help people affected by the changes to remain eligible for food stamps, by linking them with jobs or volunteer opportunities.

The Trump administration’s bill also restricts the ability of states to request waivers for work requirements to areas with over 10% unemployment. Previously, several states had been able to get waivers based on much lower unemployment thresholds.

Officials in Illinois, whose work waiver ended Jan. 31, said the bulk of its drop in SNAP recipients will likely show up after May 1. That is when the three months of food aid for people who no longer qualify for SNAP under the new rules expires. State officials there said up to 120,000 people could lose food benefits as of this month.

“We’re deeply concerned about the sharp caseload decline we will see beginning this week,” said Nolan Downey, senior director of policy for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago’s food bank.

Bruce Meyer, a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago who studies poverty, said that while he thought SNAP had become too bloated and supported some work requirements, he was troubled by the steep declines in states like Arizona.

“Most of the people who are getting food stamps are needy,” he said. “When you’re cutting that many people, you’re probably cutting into some people who really do need the benefits.”

Orange man bad

Worrying about being hungry is a great motivator to get out there and find work.
Having a job to support yourself builds up self esteem.
Am I leaving anything out?

Saw on news yesterday where SNAP recipients cannot get junk food any longer on the .gov free plan.

That's gotta sting a little.....buy a head of lettuce instead of a pack of Hershey bars.

I like my tax money being spent appropriately.

….. yall actually read all that ?

Believe it or not, some people like to read, lol.

Second that.....
Cliffs Notes please.

I tried but my vision is having issues and it got to be to much zooming in and having to go back and forth to read it so I stoped

People now.days prefer pictures for instant gratification rather than reading.
A picture of the above post would show a grossly over weight person paying for junk food with food.stamps and.crying because they were going to have to work part time to continue getting fee food and.no more junk.

Adults capable of working should have to work. I'm okay with making sure no American kids go hungry.

Keith

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NlsO1UrF0Mg&list=RDNlsO1UrF0Mg&start_radio=1&pp=ygUTZG9uJ3QgZmVlZCB0aGUgbGF6eaAHAQ%3D%3D

Agreed, nothing at all wrong with rice and beans.

When I was a kid raise by a single mom and still in government subsided housing our fridge has the bare basics. Mom was to proud to get on food stamps even thow working 3 jobs she still would have qualified. I was to young to know we were that poor. We had some interesting meals like fish tacos made with tunna in the 80s before they were a thing. Becuse that was all that was in the house. A box of taco shells and a few cans of tuna. I did notice all my " friends" in the neighborhood that moms didn't work always had a fridge full of cokes and all kinds of junk food snacks in the cabinets. I know now that was all the tax payers filling their fridge and pantry.

Guess it shows yes mom was gone at work while my friends moms sat on their butt with a different man each week . But she moved us into a much better situation and keep improving. Guess I picked up the work ethic. Maybe thats bad according to some. Yet im in a good place definitely raised the family economic and class level from poor white trass to upper middle class. Vs all the kids I grew up with during that time have been in trouble and have records and a very poor low class life. The generational curse so to speak. But in reality just a continued string of bad choices and poor guidance and examples if they had any at all


Working and having goals and a purpose is something humans need. It builds an pushed us to our potential. It gose for anything from building a skill to saving up to meet some goal. There is pride and since of accomplishment that drives us to continue to achieve more and more that people dont get when things are handed to them.

Welfare should be enough to survive on meeting basic needs for those that cant work or have a temporary set back and hard times. It ahould not be a generational life style and they should be eating better then poor people that are working and putting in the effort.

“You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible.”

-Thomas sowell

Don't forget the frozen burritos and Pepsi.

I'm glad to see some of those small changes. They don't work, live off of our tax dollars but when they file income tax they still get money back. That there's insane.

“Welfare” actually creates poverty,,,

It doesn’t cure it

Great article, thanks for posting.

I read it all.

I did odd jobs from the age of 9 until I got a real job at 16. My sisters, brother and myself all worked to buy our first cars. I still work and have never recieved foodstamps.

Still, I'd rather see my neighbors eating good, even if they are lazy, than watch billions upon billions of tax dollars being stolen by our politicians, given freely to other countries or blown up while killing people all over the world.

I can't help but laugh at where it says that the tighter work requirements will reduce SNAP spending by 68 billion dollars over the next decade. Yet, in the next decade we will certainly give much more than that away to a small country in the Middle East. Screw that! Let our fellow Americans eat!

Next up should be deadbeats on disability.