AKRON, Ohio — Families are bracing for less help every month getting dinner on the table. More changes are coming to the SNAP program, and it has the potential to reduce or eliminate benefits for millions.
For decades, lower-income families have supplemented their grocery store costs with SNAP benefits. Now, with new federal requirements, certain groups are at risk of losing those benefits.
The biggest change going into effect this fall is the new work requirements.
Now, when adults do not report 20 hours of work per week or complete paperwork to become exempt, they will only be eligible for SNAP benefits for three months, every three years.
"It's very likely that some people will lose access to SNAP because they're not able to complete the new necessary reporting requirements. For example, we have veterans, youth aging out of foster care, and homeless individuals who were previously exempted from work reporting requirements who will now be subject to those requirements," said Jorri Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks.
Now, adults aged 55 to 64 will be required to report work hours, as well as parents with children 14 and up.
"Families purchasing power will be reduced overtime. There's also a lot of other changes that are going to depend on how the state and county partners implement and how consumers are going to participate in that implementation," said Novotny.
These changes might lead folks to need more help at places like food banks. The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank said it is already grappling with a 20% cut in the state budget to its funding, on top of federal cuts.
"We've already had a very significant cut in federal support for our food bank this year, which is going to result in 2.5 to 3 million pounds less federal support. At the same time when the state budget passed, we got another cut about a 20% cut for foodbanks statewide which is going to affect us to the tune again of 2.5 to 5 million pounds. So, we're already sitting at five to six million pounds of state and federal food compared to this time last year," said Dan Flowers, CEO of Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.
Now, the foodbank is preparing for more folks to need help.
"This year we have the highest rates of food insecurity in this country that we've had in the last 10 years. And you know even though we're always seeking to bring awareness to this issue, there's been a lot of conversations about the difficult climate that we're in right now and the difficult storms kind of ahead with some of these SNAP cuts," said Flowers.
If you want to check in on your benefits in Ohio, click here. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will also reach out to folks if there is a change to their benefit status.
