Federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have left thousands of locals without benefits.
Monroe County Department of Human Services reports that it closed 3,900 cases at the end of May due to non-compliance or not verifying an exemption to new work requirements for some people without dependents.
“That first month was pretty difficult because we don't typically close that many cases in a month,” said Deputy Commissioner Denise Read, “and so we had to have staff doing extra, use overtime, things like that to get it done.”
Those requirements changed after Congress passed H.R. 1, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill," last summer. It expanded work requirements to a greater number of benefit recipients.
For instance, a parent whose child is 14 years old or older is no longer exempt from work activity requirements. The same goes for people who are homeless, veterans, and people between the ages of 54 and 64.
The changes have left some more at risk of food insecurity, Read said.
“If you were undomiciled and homeless, veterans, and aged out of foster care, were all exemptions that were removed by HR1,” Read said. “We also lost some very specific exemptions for people who are pretty vulnerable.”
It used to be that a person did not need to provide a mailing address to be eligible for SNAP, previously known as food stamps. However, those same people are more likely to miss a time-sensitive notice about their benefits.
“But that then becomes a barrier when we need to send something,” Read said. “For years it was touted as not something that you needed in the program. But now you need to get all these notices from the local district. Even though we told you before, you didn't have to have an address. It’s really a Catch-22 for people who don't have that kind of reliable infrastructure in their life.”
In February, the county identified about 6,000 households that needed to verify their eligibility for food assistance under the new regulations, Read said.
Overall, there were nearly 83,700 people who were receiving SNAP benefits as of June 30, according to Monroe County DHS. The month before, there were more than 87,800. County officials noted that cases open and close daily, and these broader numbers are not solely related to the new federal requirements.
“If you want to help looking for a job, if you want help going to school, if you want a volunteer opportunity, all of those things you can get to if you use SaveMySnap.org,” Read said.
That website is a Foodlink initiative.
“We're in kind of full crisis response mode by making sure that we are bolstering our shopping list as big as we can, so that every single food pantry and every single soup kitchen in our 10 county service area has access to more food on a regular basis,” said Mitch Gruber, chief impact officer at Foodlink.
Gruber said that when fewer people are food secure, there is a ripple effect on the wider community.
“I hope we all feel a moral imperative that no one should go to bed hungry on any given night,” Gruber said. “People are going to end up eating more, cheaper food that is more calorie dense and nutrient devoid, and all that does is ... further kind of denigrate the overall public health of our community.”
