By Rebekah Alvey

July 16, 2026

Two and a half years ago, Helen Swire Comer quit her job as a bank manager to take care of her parents full-time. She’d worked since she was 15 years old and planned to continue working into her 70s.

In Louisiana, 82 percent of the drop in SNAP participation is tied to procedural reasons, like technical issues on behalf of the applicant, more frequent re-verification or additional paperwork, according to data analyzed by Tiandra Fields, a policy analyst at Invest in Louisiana.

Several states have started requiring SNAP applicants in mixed-status households to verify the citizenship of all individuals in their household. This could mean some eligible individuals could lose access to benefits as those in need of assistance won’t apply out of privacy concerns, state advocates said.

“You’ll see a whole era of people who have this fear about applying for public benefits because they do not want to be referred to ICE,” Fields said.

The USDA has also pushed states to turn over additional data about SNAP households, which critics say raises privacy concerns. Nevada is one of 29 that complied with the USDA’s request for additional data.

“That didn’t help build trust in our neighbor community that the state was going to protect the best interest of the residents of the state,” Piccinini said.

Volunteers distribute free groceries to those in need at a drive-through food distribution in Altadena, California, in the aftermath of the 2025 federal government shutdown, which caused SNAP/CalFresh food benefit delays. (Photo credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Mandeep Singh and his family have owned it since 2000.

“If you’re driving on the main street, you will never know that we exist,” Singh said recently, after a rush of customers came in to purchase snacks for the Mexico-South Africa World Cup game. “We know nearly everyone on their first name basis because only the locals come in here.”

As a smaller retailer, Pickford Market offers over 4,500 items, including conventional, natural and organic products. But they emphasize fresh produce. Through a program with the LA Food Policy Council (LAFPC), customers that spend at least $5 using their EBT card can get a free bundle of local fruits and vegetables.

But since the passage of the OBBB, Singh has seen his customers struggle to afford the basic necessities. He’s also seen a large drop in EBT sales at the store.

“It’s just sad to see that they’re not able to get the basics,” Singh. “They’re working hard and trying to do everything the right way, but still that help that they had before has been either taken away or has been reduced tremendously.”

EBT dollars at Pickford Market were down 18 to 25 percent in January through May of this year.

The drop is significant and puts more pressure on the business. But it also ripples through the entire “ecosystem” of wholesalers, small vendors, and producers.

Singh’s store is one of thousands of markets facing similar challenges.

On top of the drop in EBT sales, smaller retailers like bodegas and corner stores face additional burdens, because of new USDA requirements for what they must stock on their shelves. While intended to improve access to healthier foods for SNAP participants, it presents a logistical challenge, particularly for smaller grocers.

These smaller stores are often located in low-income communities, where many people rely on EBT and where larger markets are far away, making them important access points for SNAP households. But if stores can’t adapt to the new requirements and must drop out of the program, they could be losing a major revenue stream, said Alba Velasquez, executive director at LAFPC.

“It’s unrealistic for them to be in compliance, given the new requirements,” Velasquez said. “These are small markets that have low stock on all their products. . . . They can’t, for example, have seven types of cheeses.”

Margaret Mannion, director of government relations at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), said only 60 percent of the group’s membership report they will be able to comply with the new rule. But these stores would need to bring in new items they don’t currently stock, and these stores don’t anticipate selling many of these products.

“My sense is . . . there are going to be fewer retailers, fewer places for people to redeem their SNAP benefits, which is going to increase their travel costs and time and make the benefit less beneficial,” Heflin said.

These ripples extend beyond the stores to the farmers that produce the food. Rural grocers, for example, may have to close if they can’t meet the requirements and can’t offer SNAP benefits. But these are sometimes the closest store for miles.

“If they aren’t able to sell food to the SNAP people . . . they’ll have a hard time surviving because they’re working on small margins already,” said Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union. “Right now with the economic crisis in agriculture, it couldn’t come at a worse time.”

A woman loads a car with groceries during a free food distribution for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Nov. 9, 2025. The US Supreme Court said on Nov. 7 that the Trump administration did not have to immediately pay SNAP food benefits defunded during the government shutdown, a temporary order that left millions in limbo. (Photo credit: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images)

Even if schools still qualify for CEP, the reimbursement rate can be a challenge. But the program removes an administrative barrier for families and schools. With the decline in SNAP so far, anti-hunger advocates are worried about how further drops will impact CEP schools and families.

Similarly, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) allows Medicaid and SNAP participants to more easily qualify for benefits. With fewer people on SNAP, it could become more burdensome for applicants to continue accessing WIC.

The drop in SNAP is also putting additional pressure on emergency food systems like food banks and pantries.

In Washington, D.C., cuts to SNAP followed an already unstable economic period after cuts to federal staff, which saw over 200,000 federal employees leave the workforce within the first year of the Trump administration. These cuts also had an impact on federal contractors, who found themselves in need of support even as it was eroding.

By the spring of 2025, amid Trump-initiated cuts but before the OBBB was passed, the need for food assistance had increased among former federal workers and contractors, said Radha Muthiah, CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB), which serves residents of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV).

Since the passage of the OBBB, over the last 12 months, the food bank provided about 65 million meals worth of food, a 30 percent increase over its projections for the year.

For the upcoming year, they are expecting to distribute about 70 million meals, across the DMV. In fiscal year 2021, at the height of the pandemic, the food bank provided over 76 million meals.

As all of the policies of OBBB kick in over the next two years, Muthiah said about 50,000 households in the region are expected to lose an average of $187 a month in their SNAP benefits. This is out of the about 400,000 people who currently rely on SNAP.

“We were never built to address this magnitude of need across the country,” Muthiah said. “Our network was supposed to be there as a supplementary form of nutrition and not . . . the primary form of food assistance and support.”

Demonstrators hold signs, as furloughed federal workers and allies held a food drive and rally in support or releasing $6 billion in emergency SNAP funds in October 2025. (Photo credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Democrats are trying to push back on this possibility by advocating for a delay in the cost-shift provision. Most recently, Senate Democrats have looked to Senate farm bill talks as a vehicle to do this. But the draft text released at the end of June did not include the delay.

But the release of FY25 SNAP payment error rates just days later presented a stark image for states.

“The reality is states aren’t prepared for this,” Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director at Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, said. “It feels as though folks are being set up for failure.”

There are also other federal action advocates are eyeing. A USDA proposed rule to reform categorical eligibility is listed as under review at the Office of Management and Budget. While the proposal is not public, the first Trump administration proposed a rule that limited the broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE) option for states. Groups like the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimate a similar rule could kick 6 million people off SNAP.

Another proposed rule listed in the 2026 regulatory agenda would amend the definition of “eligible food” for purchase in SNAP to prioritize nutritious foods and align the program with the MAHA agenda. This comes after laws in four states restricting purchases of soda, candy and other items were rolled back by a federal court. 

As the new rules from the OBBB continue to take effect, advocates also worry the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA) won’t have enough expertise staff to provide critical support to states. The FNA, formerly the Food and Nutrition Service, has lost 30 percent of its staff due to federal staff reductions.

Now, the agency is moving forward with a major reorganization that would require most FNA staff to relocate or quit. And a recent union survey shows most would opt for the second option.

The 2025 government shutdown was an example of what happens when federal staff are unavailable to help states navigate new policies.

“If states don’t get it right the first time, it could feed into their payment error rate,” Weikert Bryant said. “Every time states change something on the back end of their eligibility system, it costs money, and the ultimate fallout is that people who are applying, who get stuck in the middle, are the ones who really suffer.“

Through the reorganization process, FNA was demoted as a USDA mission area, and will now be led by a politically appointed administrator, rather than a Senate-confirmed undersecretary.

Internal USDA documents show the agency does not plan to backfill the roles employees who chose to leave during the reorganization process, according to a court filing by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

The documents show USDA also plans to “deemphasize the food stamp program,” in line with the president’s “priorities.”

But one of the biggest concerns those interviewed for this story raised for the future is that states simply won’t be able to meet the new costs associated with SNAP. That would mean cutting back on services, or states leaving the program entirely.

Eleven percent of states surveyed by APHSA said leaving SNAP is a possibility. Over a quarter said narrowing eligibility policies is an option, which would make it even harder for individuals to access SNAP.

“That would be catastrophic,” Waxman said. “I think part of the challenge for people to take this all in is that it’s happening in bits and pieces. . . . It will take some time for people to understand just how dramatic the change is.”