SNAP Cuts Proposed in Washington Would Hit Arizonans Hard

Phoenix, AZ – This week, the U.S. Senate is considering a budget bill that would cut nearly $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through 2034. That’s roughly a 30 percent cut in the program—the largest in history. Since SNAP is a critical hunger-fighting tool for the nation, these cuts would have devastating impacts on our community’s ability to meet the needs of those most vulnerable. With these cuts, hundreds of thousands of Arizonans would lose grocery benefits, inevitably leading to increased demand at food banks.

“Food banks are already serving a record 700,000 people each month statewide,” said April Bradham, President and CEO of the Arizona Food Bank Network (AzFBN). “That’s more Arizonans in need of emergency food assistance than during the peak of the pandemic. If the federal budget bill cuts SNAP by 30 percent, we’ll see those numbers go up. Food banks are resilient and do whatever they can to support their communities, but the scale of need these cuts would generate cannot be met by them alone.”

“As a food bank that works with more than 700 partners to serve 285,000 meals throughout Arizona each day, we understand the impacts SNAP cuts like this will have.” said Milt Liu, President & CEO of St. Mary’s Food Bank. “Our neighbors, particularly families with young children, are already struggling to make ends meet, especially in rural areas where the cost of food and unemployment is higher. Federal resource cuts, like to the SNAP program, would hurt them even more and worsen the hunger crisis in Arizona.”

The federal budget bill being discussed passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a 215-to-214 vote on May 22, and is expected to be voted on by the Senate before July 4. The massive cuts to SNAP would come through cost-shifting to states and other structural changes to the program that inevitably will take benefits away from those that need it most.

The federal budget bill would:

Shift costs to states: Since its inception, SNAP (formerly known as “food stamps”) has been fully federally funded, with states contributing 50 percent of the cost to administer the program. The federal funding megabill requires states to pay a percentage of SNAP food benefit costs starting in 2028, with Arizona’s annual contribution estimated at $501 million in addition to requiring the state to take on more of the administrative costs. Given Arizona’s total budget, this would be a significant cost that the state will not be able to meet without raising taxes, cutting other critical programs, and/or making the difficult choice of taking access away from those who are in the program – ultimately leaving many of our neighbors unable to afford the food they need.

Restrict SNAP for unemployed and underemployed parents and seniors: The budget bill subjects more people —including seniors up to age 65 and parents of children as young as 7—to the harsh three-month time limit, requiring that they document 20 hours of work per week to receive grocery benefits. It also eliminates existing exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and former foster youth. These changes would strip food assistance from an estimated 190,000 Arizonans who may be working insufficient hours due to unique situations such as home-schooling children, experiencing significant barriers to employment like undiagnosed behavioral health problems, or not being able to secure employment that would cover the cost of childcare. The proposal also limits each state’s ability to waive requirements when they experience extremely high unemployment rates in certain communities; commonly, this results in people being unable to access benefits even if there are no job opportunities for them

Prevent SNAP from adapting to actual food costs: The “Thrifty Food Plan” is the basis for calculating SNAP benefits, and the budget bill prevents any future updates to it. This essentially locks benefit levels in place, regardless of new data on nutritional needs or the cost of a healthy diet. When most levels of SNAP benefits already max out at about $2 per meal, all of Arizona’s 913,632 SNAP participants—including 378,162 children—would see an outsized inflation impact that means fewer groceries. Annual adjustments to other nutrition assistance programs that are backed by regularly tracked data and respond to national socioeconomic conditions could be jeopardized, too.

“Together, these changes would decrease people’s ability to put food on the table each month, at a time when food prices are already high,” said Sio Castillo, Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. “It would increase food insecurity to a level that our food bank would struggle to reverse.”

“Arizona food banks cannot replace the scale of meals provided by the SNAP program,” said Jason Reed, President & CEO of United Food Bank. “While we are certainly blessed to provide food to hundreds of thousands of Arizonans each month, we are simply not equipped to handle the giant increase in demand that would result from reduced access to SNAP,” Reed said.

On the precipice of more economic stress across the nation, the lives of the most vulnerable will be impacted first while vulnerable populations grow. Arizona’s nonprofits – food banks, shelters, healthcare clinics – will fill the gaps in service as best as they can funded by charitable donations and grant funding, but these organizations are already struggling to meet the growing need. The megabill under consideration by the U.S. Senate will hurt Arizonans and the organizations that serve them.

“We are concerned about the cuts,” said Shara Whitehead, President and CEO of Yuma Community Food Bank. “We’re hopeful that any future changes from Congress will benefit those who are already struggling.” 

Contact: Ashley St. Thomas
Director of Public Policy, Arizona Food Bank Network
[email protected]

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The Arizona Food Bank Network (AzFBN) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a hunger-free Arizona through food banking, public policy, and innovation. AzFBN member food banks include the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, Desert Mission Food Bank, St. Mary’s Food Bank, United Food Bank, and Yuma Community Food Bank.