SNAP Cuts on the Horizon for Ohio Households
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps more than one million Ohioans purchase healthy and nutritious food each year. SNAP primarily benefits children, seniors, those with disabilities and many hardworking families. In Ohio, SNAP benefits are distributed to different households over the course of the first 3 weeks of the month. Here are specific changes that begin on November 1st that will cost many in our communities their daily bread.
1. New Bureaucracy: The federal government in July added a lot more bureaucracy to SNAP in HR 1. These bureaucratic work reporting requirements add additional requirements for many households who will be at risk of losing benefits. You can read more about these here.
2. Immigrants will lose SNAP: Under U.S. law, an undocumented immigrant has never been eligible for SNAP. However, many legal immigrants such as refugees and asylum seekers fleeing violence and war torn areas will lose out on food security as a result of H.R.1. You can read more about the impact of the federal policy changes on those new neighbors following U.S. law here.
3. The Federal Shut Down means no SNAP benefits in November: We learned last week from ODJFS that SNAP benefits will not be distributed in November in Ohio as a result of the federal shut down. In Ohio SNAP benefits are distributed onto household EBT cards by the 20th of the month. There was hope that the federal government would provide a mechanism for states to issue partial benefits, or allow those who receive benefits early in the month to receive them. However, the federal government continues to play politics with hardworking Ohioans lives.
You can read more about SNAP in the federal government shut down here.
Different states are responding differently, and at this time it is unclear if the Ohio General Assembly or Governor will intervene on behalf of more than one million Ohioans who wont be able to buy groceries in the coming weeks.
All of these federal cuts come on the heels of Ohio's operating budget last spring cutting funding for Ohio's food bank system by more than $7 million a year.
The federal and state government must prioritize hungry neighbors and guarantee that all receive their daily bread.