‘We’re the frontline of defense’: Food banks grapple with megabill’s impact

Food banks say they are wholly unprepared to feed millions of Americans when Republicans' cuts to traditional federal safety net programs take effect.

The GOP's megabill slashes more than $1 trillion from the nation's largest food aid program and Medicaid, with some of the cuts taking effect as early as this year. Low-income people grappling with higher costs of living could be forced to turn to emergency food assistance.

In preparation, food bank leaders are trying to convince private foundations and state leaders to give them more money. Some states like Minnesota and Pennsylvania have already been weighing shifting additional resources to emergency food programs or standing up new initiatives to counter the loss of federal dollars.

That still won't be enough.

According to Feeding America, the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program alone would eliminate 6 billion to 9 billion meals annually — roughly the same number of meals the food bank network provided last year. Those food banks would need to double their operations to close the gap SNAP leaves behind.

“There is no world in which I can imagine we double ourselves, into perpetuity,” Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks wrote in a text message.

Food bank leaders like Novotny said cuts to SNAP, which provides food aid to over 40 million low-income Americans, will exacerbate their already strained operations. They’ve been piecing together state and federal money to meet increased hunger needs post-Covid, when food prices soared by over 30 percent. Now, much of that money has dried up, and the Trump administration earlier this year canceled more than $1 billion in federal funds for food banks, including money to buy from local farms.

The breakdown in a food safety net could have a significant impact in Republican strongholds as people across the country, including in deep red areas, lose access to benefits and struggle to find an alternative. Rural communities, which largely voted for President Donald Trump, often have access to just one or two emergency food pantries.

Many grocery stores in low-income rural areas rely on SNAP benefits as a primary source of revenue, and even marginal cuts to the program could result in their closure, further compounding food access issues, according to the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

“Solving rural hunger is, by definition, much more expensive because you're moving smaller quantities of food over much longer distances to serve smaller populations,” said Vince Hall, chief government relations officer at Feeding America, the nation’s largest network of food banks.

Republicans have defended the cuts, arguing that the government needs to put its proverbial fiscal house in order and rid federal safety net programs of waste and fraud. They’ve pointed to high SNAP payment error rates, which measure how accurately states calculate food aid eligibility and benefits for households, as a prime example.

“The status quo, slap on the wrist penalties from USDA have failed at maintaining program integrity in SNAP,” House and Senate Agriculture committee chairs G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.) said in a statement earlier this week. “[The megabill’s] historic reforms will give states skin in the game on SNAP benefits and ensure they have a real incentive to improve oversight and stop improper payments before they happen.”

While some of Republicans’ changes to SNAP and Medicaid won't take effect until fiscal year 2027, food banks are expecting to see increased numbers in their lines later this year, according to Hall. For example, the megabill’s expanded work requirements for SNAP participants could take effect as soon as this year, potentially kicking some families out of the program within months. SNAP-Ed, a program that provides funding to food banks for nutrition education like cooking classes and tips for how to stretch a grocery budget, will also be cut.

At Feeding America West Michigan, president Kenneth Estelle says his organization is launching a major fundraising campaign in August, anticipating even higher demand prompted by SNAP cuts. Share Food Program’s George Matysik said he’s working closely with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to increase state resources for food banks. For example, Shapiro’s budget, which the state legislature hasn’t yet passed, proposes an additional $8 million for local food purchasing and emergency food assistance.

“We’re the frontline of defense because there’s nowhere to go for free utilities or free rent but you can get free food from your local food shelf,” said Zach Rodvold, director of public affairs at Second Harvest Heartland, a food bank in Minnesota, which recently approved a new program for food banks.

It’s not entirely clear all the ways in which different pieces of the megabill will interact with each other, but many anti-hunger advocates say they fear the number of people kicked out of programs like Medicaid and SNAP could be even higher than currently estimated.

If fewer families qualify for SNAP, that will have ripple effects for kids who previously automatically qualified for free school meals or summer food programs. Medicaid cuts will further strain household budgets.

Even states that are currently able to supplement the emergency food network may be forced to make different budget calls when Republicans’ provision to push some SNAP costs onto states starts in fiscal year 2028. The change would lead to states shouldering hundreds of millions of dollars for the SNAP program that they didn’t have to before, and may force governors to cut food assistance, public safety or other state programs.

“We’re doing everything we can to fundraise and dig deep but there’s no amount of philanthropy that can make up for the size of the SNAP cuts,” said Feeding Texas’ Celia Cole, noting that Texas food banks already lost roughly $85 million this year due to the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts.

“We are really fighting several wars at once here,” she added.