{"id":85418,"date":"2025-07-23T08:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85418\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T08:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:07:09","slug":"heres-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/85418\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CEO of Philabundance Food Bank<\/a> says President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cBig Beautiful Bill\u201d will have some ugly consequences for Philadelphia\u2019s most vulnerable families.<\/p>\n

The legislation, passed earlier this month<\/a>, includes deep cuts to spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, which could affect millions of Americans who rely on it. Almost 2 million Pennsylvania residents<\/a>, including 55,000 people in and around Philadelphia, stand to lose their SNAP benefits under these changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That will worsen many measures of food insecurity, including childhood hunger rates, said Philabundance\u2019s CEO, Loree Jones-Brown. Philadbundance serves many of the more than 600,000 people in the area who face food insecurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really upsetting and concerning is that the numbers are already high, and then we have this,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Food banks across the region have already seen cuts to state and federal programs<\/a> this year \u2014 including the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program<\/a>, which helped food banks to purchase produce and other items from Pennsylvania farmers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones-Brown said that for many families, food banks like Philabundance \u201cfill in the gaps\u201d between what they need and what SNAP provides. Cutting SNAP will widen that gap dramatically.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every meal that a food bank provides, SNAP provides, like, nine meals,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we definitely are a part of the charitable food network and are a social safety net. We\u2019re there for emergencies, and we really help people when they have \u2018more month than money,\u2019 \u201d meaning they will run out of resources before their benefits re-set with a new month.<\/p>\n

Specific changes\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, what exactly is changing for the SNAP program? There will be several differences, said University of Tennessee Associate Professor of Social Work Dr. Stacia West.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing [we will see] is a shift of the fiscal responsibility for SNAP administration and benefit payment from the federal government down to the states,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With these changes,<\/a> states would now be responsible for 5% of benefit costs beginning in fiscal year 2028, and 75% of administrative costs. Currently, benefits are 100% federally funded, and states cover only half of administrative costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the state of Pennsylvania, that\u2019s going to equal about $125 million on top of an already operational deficit that we have for social services in the state,\u201d West said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has expressed concerns about the state\u2019s ability to handle cuts to this program. In a recent news conference<\/a>, the governor said, \u201cPennsylvania can\u2019t backfill those cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

West said another part of the changes is a shift in work requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second piece of the legislation moves work requirements, which were already in place from the age of 54, all the way up to the age of 64,\u201d she said. \u201cSo previously, when you were over 54 years old, you were not having to meet that monthly work requirement of exactly 80 hours per month. Now, we\u2019re seeing that move up to age 64.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most parents with children ages 14 or older will also face new work requirements<\/a> \u2013 requiring at least 20 hours of work each week to maintain benefits. Many parents are currently exempt<\/a> from work requirements until their children are 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration<\/a> claims that rescinding work waivers would increase participation in the labor force and reduce dependency on federal aid. However, the U.S. is generally considered to be at or very near full employment, and West said this rationale for changes will likely not have the intended effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a problem with people in poverty not working,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we have is a labor market that is unfriendly to people that have various other responsibilities, including elder care or care of children.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, she said, \u201cif we were to invest in the infrastructure that allowed people to work full time and have better-paying jobs, then that would actually be a more efficient way to make SNAP less costly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities<\/a>, families with children, older adults and military veterans could be especially affected by these cuts as they often face various barriers to employment and labor markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, SNAP is often just partial assistance for families, and does not cover the full cost of their groceries. These cuts may make that gap bigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a single adult with two kids in Philadelphia, we can estimate their monthly food cost without SNAP, just our average grocery store run, is about $900,\u201d she said. \u201cThe average SNAP benefit in the state of Pennsylvania is about $462 for that same size family. So we\u2019ve got a pretty sizable gap there. What we\u2019re talking about with these cuts is just increasing that gap more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hunger getting worse<\/p>\n

For food banks and those seeking food, SNAP cuts could also affect hunger rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The definition of hunger is changing, Jones-Brown explained \u2014 especially as rising costs in other parts of a family\u2019s budget make food costs even more of a burden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe face of hunger is actually changing and expanding in this alarming and concerning way,\u201d she said, adding that more dual-income households could find themselves in need of food assistance.<\/p>\n

People often \u201chave a stereotype\u201d around what hunger looks like, but she emphasized hunger can affect many more people than one may think.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Changes to other government programs, such as Medicaid, will likely impact low-income households and increase the pressure on funds for food, said George Matysik, executive director of Share Food Program, a local food bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShare Food Program has already seen a 120% increase in need and folks coming to us since January of 2022,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we\u2019re also gonna see cuts from the federal government to programs like SNAP, but also to programs like Medicaid that have real impacts on the folks that we serve, indirectly we\u2019re gonna see that need continue to grow for organizations like ours.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones-Brown said cuts to all of these services can fall onto vulnerable populations \u2013 specifically, schoolchildren.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen kids don\u2019t get access to fresh, healthy food they need early on, from babies to adolescents, we see things like babies\u2019 brains not developing properly,\u201d she said. \u201cWe see children not being able to pay attention in school, and that affects behavior, but also academic performance. We see mood shifts in children \u2026 Some of the research shows that it can even lead to things as bad as mental health issues and suicidal ideations.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moving forward<\/p>\n

What strategies are hunger and food insecurity experts implementing?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experts agreed the approach moving forward would need to be \u201cmulti-dimensional,\u201d and would have to involve innovative strategies from all branches of government and nonprofits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe absolutely are cost shifting,\u201d said Jones-Brown, of Philabundance. \u201cWe\u2019re thinking about where and how we can be more efficient in other areas. How do we do more with less? Because we really do want to maintain that quantity and quality for our neighbors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matysik said food banks will likely be relying more heavily on donations and outside funders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Share Food Program, more than ever, we are gonna be needing to rely on the charity of others to help us get through this moment,\u201d he said. \u201cWith this huge increase and need of folks that we\u2019re needing to serve, we need to be able to source more donations. We need to be able to get more trucks on the road to get the products out to the folks that need it. All of that costs money for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

West explains there needs to be help from state and local leaders to weather these changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the federal government is falling short, we\u2019re seeing mayors, city council leaders, those sorts of folks step up with innovative programming that [aims to] meet the needs of the community,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s absolutely what will happen here. I think there\u2019s a place now, more than ever before, for philanthropy to be hyperlocal and investing in our community-based organizations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even so, Jones-Brown said the situation has her feeling uneasy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely believe that we have government officials at every level that care about people and care about food banks, but I just don\u2019t see how it\u2019s possible that they can make up for those gaps,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be talking with them and trying to hear what plans they have, but I\u2019ve not yet heard a solution to make up for those gaps.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CEO of Philabundance Food Bank says President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cBig Beautiful Bill\u201d will have some ugly consequences…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":85419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1322,990,57739,1448,2830,57740,1311,80,57741,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-85418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-featured","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-food-banks","12":"tag-pa","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-philabundance","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-share-food-program","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114901525817010266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}