The new federal spending bill will cut about $186 billion in food benefits nationwide over the next decade, and change eligibility requirements, which some say will likely make food security more challenging in Hawaiʻi.
The cuts in the legislation impact the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, forcing states to pay for those cuts themselves, make changes to the program, or eliminate it altogether.
The low-income food program provides benefits for 42 million people nationwide, and about 160,000 every month in Hawaiʻi. The state gets about $50 million for SNAP monthly.
“These are people who are employed. They're doing everything they can to make ends meet, and it's still not enough — and now the bill that just passed is gonna make it even harder,” said Elia Herman, the Hawaiʻi Foodbank’s director of advocacy. “It's creating these additional barriers when people are already doing everything they can to … feed their families.”
SNAP is funded entirely by the federal government. Starting in 2028, when the cuts take place, that will no longer be the case.
About one-third of local households are experiencing food insecurity, according to a 2023 Hawaiʻi Foodbank report, which in part is a result of the state’s high cost of living, inflation and other factors.
SNAP is one of the most important tools for fighting food insecurity, Herman said, so the cuts will weaken the state's ability to do so.
Structural changes to SNAP will also require states to pay more for the program, depending on their error rates for distributing benefits. Distributions that are too high or too low contribute to a state's error rate.
Starting in 2028, states with higher error rates can pay up to 15% of the cost of SNAP.
The changes also hurt eligibility for the program.
Currently, able-bodied adults from 19 to 54 years old have to work, volunteer or study for 80 hours a month to qualify for the program, but the new changes will force those up to 64 years old to fulfill those work requirements.
Herman noted that SNAP participation also impacts eligibility for other programs.
“One example is that children in households receiving SNAP are automatically eligible for free school meals. There's no additional paperwork, there's nothing more that they need to do,” she said. “So if families lose their SNAP benefits, those keiki could end up losing food both at home as well as at school — there's sort of all of these trickle down impacts."
SNAP participants in Hawaiʻi are also eligible for DA BUX, a local program that offers 50% discounts on locally grown produce, which provides healthy food for participants and helps sales for local farmers.
Slashing SNAP funds will likely increase the demand for food banks and food pantries, which have also been hurt by federal cuts.
Herman said Hawaiʻi Foodbank lost $4 million in federal funds used to purchase food.
But she did praise the state for moving legislation and funding that will or can be used to cover the shortage caused by the SNAP cuts, including its roughly $200 million rainy day fund.
Senate Bill 933 also provides $50 million for nonprofits that may have lost federal funding. State lawmakers also moved House Bill 1099, which reinvests about $5 million the state would have paid because of its error rates into changes to reduce those errors.
The state also dedicated $1.1 million via Senate Bill 960 for more SNAP staff in the state Department of Human Services.
In total, the cuts and changes in the new spending bill will result in a $230 billion reduction to SNAP nationwide over the next decade.
