President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed the structure of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP.
That includes changes to work requirements, eligibility and the responsibilities of states that distribute the food aid.
Impact in Wisconsin
SNAP is known as FoodShare in Wisconsin. It is an anti-poverty program that exists to ensure people have access to nutritious food.
But since last year, when the new rules began to roll out, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been limiting who those people are.
Julie Bock studies social policy. She’s a lecturer at UWM’s Helen Bader School of Social Welfare.
"Up until the Big Beautiful Bill, the federal government paid 100% of SNAP. Now starting in 2027, states are going to be paying between 5 and 15% of the SNAP costs. I’m not really sure where that money is going to be coming from, and each state will have to deal with it in a different way," Bock says.
According to the Food Research & Action Center, this is the first time since the modern SNAP program began in 1960s that states will be required to share the cost of funding the program.
The amount states pay will be based on error rates. Those measure how accurately states determine household eligibility and benefit amounts.
States must keep error rates below 6%. Based on benefit costs this year, Wisconsin could be responsible for up to $205 million.
Regarding FoodShare recipients, Bock says since Trump’s bill was signed in July of last year, 4.5 million people nationwide have been removed from SNAP.
"So, that's an 11% decrease. So, that is a tremendous amount of people leaving SNAP and therefore not having access to the fiscal help in purchasing food. About half of that, one million, is children."
Bock says in Wisconsin, about 24,000 people have lost FoodShare.
New SNAP work requirements apply to people 18 to 64 if there is not a child under 14 in the home. Recipients must work, volunteer, or take part in an approved training program for 80 hours a month.
The new requirements also eliminated benefits for a number of people with legal immigration status — including asylees, foreign-born members of tribal nations and refugees.
Pantries are seeing the effects.
Surge in demand at food pantries
The People’s Table Food Pantry in Milwaukee has seen an uptick in visitors, according to Jack Bolog, the director of operations.
"Just the first week of July, we noticed a significant surge in numbers. We'll typically serve between 100 to 120 families a week; that week we served 150 families," Bolog says.
He says that many new clients are refugees.
And he adds that network-wide pantries are under stress with client volume.
"When FoodShare becomes increasingly challenged to access or becomes ineligible for people to have, it puts increased pressure on the pantry, on a variety of pantries in our community," Bolog says.
The FoodShare restrictions come amid a tough economy, and when FoodShare benefits already aren’t meeting many families’ needs.
Hunger Task Force in Milwaukee reports seeing a 50% increase in pantry clients among its network of pantries in the last two years.
Armando Diaz, the pantry coordinator at the House of Peace Pantry, says client visits have increased there too.
"Before FoodShare decreased, people that came in here that get FoodShare every month was somewhere between 50 to 75 people, and now the people that come in here that relied on FoodShare is 300 people."
Diaz says first-time pantry users have also increased from an average of 75 to 80 people, to 250-plus.
Thirty-year-old Alexandria T., a working mom I met at the House of Peace Pantry, says she could use a larger monthly benefit.
"I currently have five kids and I’m only getting like 400 and something dollars. So, food is like expensive and I still have to pay out of my pocket plus, you know, bills," Alexandria says.
Nina Nuell thinks benefits should increase too.
She goes to the House of Peace Pantry for food once a month.
"I just feel like the prices of food done got so high, but the food stamps still stay low and I feel like they should raise it because we stuck at the end of the month trying to figure out how we gonna get food to our families," she says.
As time passes, pantries and other emergency food providers will feel even more pressure as more One Big Beautiful Bill Act restrictions are phased in.
At the end of this year, new work requirements kick in for people 19 to 64 who don’t have a child at home, who get healthcare through Medicaid. If they fail to meet the requirement, they’ll lose healthcare benefits, putting more stress on their budgets.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that helps Congress make budget and economic policy, estimates the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts SNAP by nearly $187 billion through 2034, and that more than 2.4 to 4 million people in a typical month will lose their benefits.
Support for Seeking Solutions: Food Access is provided by Jon E. Sorenson, Christine Symchych and Jim McNulty, Forage Kitchen, Capuchin Community Services and Antonia Foundation.
