When Congress passed the budget megabill this summer, headlines focused on steep cuts to Medicaid. But buried in the law are deep rollbacks to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Yasmeen Abutaleb and Maeve Reston reported for The Washington Post. Those cuts to food insecurity programs are underway now.
The law imposes stricter eligibility rules, adds work requirements, and reduces funding for SNAP and WIC, lifelines for nearly 48 million Americans. These changes could push as many as 6 million people off SNAP over the next decade and force states to turn away nearly 2 million mothers and children from WIC beginning next year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan institute in Washington, D.C.
Last year, SNAP served an average of 41.7 million people per month, or 12.3% of the U.S. population, according to the federal Economic Research Service, ranging from a high of 21.2% in New Mexico to a low of 4.8% in Utah. In 36 states, the share was between 8% and 16%, the service added. WIC provided supplementary food, nutrition education, and referrals to health care providers and social service agencies to more than 6 million low-income, nutritionally at-risk women, infants, and children up to age 5, according to this report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service.
Stories to report now
For now, journalists should focus on warnings from public health researchers who have said that the cuts to SNAP and WIC will worsen food insecurity, undermine progress in maternal and infant health and increase malnutrition among children.
Another way to report the story is to use WIC’s evidence-based approach to improving childhood nutrition and highlight how WIC has been one of the nation’s most cost-effective public health strategies, as The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation showed in this 2021 report. Slashing that funding could undo decades of progress, the researchers warned.
One long-term story to cover is how the adverse health effects of these cuts could affect generations of families, especially children, CBPP researchers said during a press briefing in May. Starting next year, children could become malnourished and suffer severe health consequences throughout childhood and into their adult lives, the researchers added. After the press briefing, CBPP President Sharon Parrott issued a statement explaining how cutting SNAP and WIC funding and throwing millions off of their health insurance would harm families.
Journalists also can follow up on these stories:
On Oct. 3, Matthew Choi and Mariana Alfaro reported for The Washington Post that funding for the WIC program, which helps millions of women and children with neonatal care and nutrition could run out this month during the federal government shutdown.
Also on Oct. 3, Ruth Talbot and Nicole Santa Cruz reported for ProPublica that the Trump administration cut $500 million (and 94 million pounds) worth of some of the healthiest, most expensive foods, such as meat, dairy, eggs and produce, that would have gone to food banks and others groups that distribute food. That amount is about 25% of the funding the programs got last year through the USDA’s Emergency Food Assistance Program that organizations distribute. That story followed reporting from ProPublica’s Mary Hudetz in May that the USDA ended a program that helped dozens of tribal food banks provide fresh, locally produced food that is important to their traditions and cultures.
The coming economic consequences
The economic consequences of cutting SNAP are stark. SNAP is not only a food-security program but also an engine of growth. Every dollar spent generates about $1.50 in economic activity, according to the USDA.
SNAP is the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, according to Ty Jones Cox, CBPP’s vice president for food assistance. By slashing almost a third (30%) of SNAP’s budget, the law is the biggest cut in the program’s history, she added, noting that such a deep reduction threatens SNAP’s effectiveness and could undo the program in some places.
Over SNAP’s 50-year history, the federal government has paid all costs, Jones Cox explained. But starting in 2028, states would need to pay a portion, ranging from 5% to 25% of food benefits, she said.
Higher costs will harm families
States already bracing for Medicaid reductions will contend with billions in lost spending power as families cut back on groceries, reported Yasmeen Abutaleb and Maeve Reston for The Washington Post. Grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and rural retailers that depend on SNAP purchases are expected to take a direct hit.
County officials in California warn that administrative costs will soar, Jackson Ellison reported for ABC10 in Sacramento. Contra Costa County, for example, projects that its CalFresh program costs could climb from $7 million to $40 million by 2027, straining local budgets even before benefits shrink, he added.
Families will feel these cuts quickly. In New Mexico, where more than 40% of residents rely on Medicaid and SNAP, the governor has called a special legislative session to consider new safety-net measures, Morgan Lee reported for The Associated Press.
At a farmers’ market in Chambersburg, Pa., the consequences of less funding came into stark relief, as Isabella Cueto wrote in a STAT News feature. “In this small borough near Gettysburg … summer’s finest produce comes within reach for even the poorest residents with help from vouchers, food stamps and wooden tokens,” she wrote. A lively hub in a low-income and senior housing community, the market functions as a cultural and nutritional lifeline, she added.
Many patrons rely on SNAP and WIC to access fresh, healthy produce, Cueto explained. With benefits reduced or eliminated, that “ultimate pharmacy” vanishes — not just in spirit, but in practical terms. The term “ultimate pharmacy” refers to the idea that food is medicine.
Uneven losses to come
Losses won’t be spread evenly. Black, Latino, other families of color and those in rural areas are more likely to rely on federal nutrition programs, face high rates of food insecurity and stand to lose disproportionately, according to this report from the Economic Policy Institute. LGBTQ+ families also will face such high rates of such insecurity, according to Ryan Adamczeski for The Advocate.
While the megabill’s reductions to Medicaid remain a major story, reporters covering food security should not overlook the SNAP and WIC angle. The public health and economic impacts are intertwined. The Commonwealth Fund projects that combined cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will reduce GDP by more than $150 billion and eliminate 1.2 million jobs within four years. Job losses will affect grocery workers, truck drivers, and farm laborers whose livelihoods depend on a steady demand from these programs.
Every state has its own enrollment numbers for SNAP and WIC, and every community has families who will see the effects in grocery aisles, clinics and schools. The Commonwealth Fund report includes data on the states with the deepest estimated relative reductions in federal Medicaid and SNAP funding by 2029, as well as data on the estimated state job losses caused by Medicaid and SNAP funding cuts in the budget megabill in the same time period. Cuts to WIC will ripple into school meal programs, where early childhood nutrition gains are reinforced, while SNAP reductions could weaken local economies that already struggle with rising food prices.
While Republicans and other supporters of the megabill have sold it as a cost-saving measure and a way to eliminate fraud, the families who depend on these programs, and the states grappling with higher costs and fewer federal dollars, the price may be measured not just in budgets but in hunger, health and widening inequality.
Long-term health damage from cutting SNAP
During the CBPP’s press briefing in May, Center President Sharon Parrott, warned about the long-term effects of the megabill. “We are stacking the deck against people, including children, hurting, not only their near-term well-being, but their opportunities for the future,” she said.
Susan Kressly, M.D., president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, also addressed the briefing, saying nearly 20% of households with children have food insecurity. Pediatricians refer parents to SNAP and to WIC to help them pay for food, she added.
“Children who are well nourished early in life have healthier brain development, stronger immune systems and better performance in school than those who are not,” Kressly said. “A child’s nutrition in the first three years of life or the first 1,000 days is a crucial factor in a child’s neuro development and lifelong mental health.”
For children in school who are hungry, focusing on learning is difficult, she added. “Food insecurity not only affects school performance, but it also puts children at increased risk of chronic conditions in adulthood,” she added.
Resources
- USDA Cancels ‘One of a Kind’ Report on Food Insecurity, Rebekah Alvey, Civil Eats, Sept, 22, 2025
- “Tracking RFK Jr.’s promises to remake health in America,” Isabella Cueto and J. Emory Parker, STAT, Sept. 10, 2025
- “Kennedy makes his formal pitch to fight chronic disease in new MAHA report,” Isabella Cueto and Sarah Todd, STAT News, Sept. 9, 2025
- “Food Is Medicine: A Project to Unify and Advance Collective Action,” Anissa Durham, Word in Black, July 18, 2025
- “How Medicaid and SNAP Cutbacks in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Would Trigger Big and Bigger Job Losses Across States,” The Commonwealth Fund, June 23, 2025
- Studying Hunger in America, professor turns research into policy, Syracuse University, May 20, 2025.
- “WIC’s Critical Benefits Reach Only Half of Those Eligible,” CBPP, May 8, 2025
- “How Potential Federal Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP Could Trigger the Loss of a Million-Plus Jobs, Reduced Economic Activity, and Less State Revenue,” The Commonwealth Fund, March 25, 2025
Editor’s note: This article was updated with new information on Oct. 13, 2025.
