Food assistance cuts, SNAP work requirements in Ohio budget

Food assistance programs in the state would see large cuts and changes under the Ohio House’s budget plan. Meanwhile, a bipartisan pair of lawmakers are trying to prevent electronic benefit card fraud by equipping them with chip technology.

As the House released its proposed spending priorities for the next two years, its Agriculture Committee heard about plans to help Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, and a rundown of the Ohioans who could be impacted by those changes.

“As a health care provider, I am acutely aware that food security is a fundamental social determinant of health,” said state Rep. Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalk.

Deeter and Rep. Tristan Rader, D-Lakewood, are co-sponsors of House Bill 163, which would enhance SNAP benefit cards with chip technology similar to that on most debit and credit cards.

According to the bill sponsors, $17 million in SNAP benefits were stolen from Ohio residents from June 2023 to January 2025. That money was reimbursed through a federal program, but that program ended in 2025.

“That means when SNAP benefits are stolen now, families will shoulder the loss,” Deeter said. “These are real Ohioans who suddenly find themselves without the means to buy groceries, through no fault of their own.”

Rader is also sponsoring a bill with Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton, that would establish a state program to replace SNAP benefits for victims of electronic benefit theft, hoping to appropriate $17 million from the General Revenue Fund for that cause.

“This came through a conversation because I continue to get calls from constituents who have lost their benefits, often disabled veterans, often senior citizens, who are in a panic on how they’re going to access food because of the SNAP threat and the (electronic benefit transfer) theft,” Tims said.

In fiscal year 2022, Ohio households received $306 per month in average SNAP benefits. Households with older adults received $155 per month on average, according to research by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

In an analysis of state and federal SNAP data from fiscal year 2024, the center’s research showed that, of the nearly 1.4 million Ohio residents using SNAP, more than 43% are families with older adults or disabled individuals. That’s higher than the national rate of 37%.

Families with children make up the largest group, with more than 62% of SNAP participants falling into that category, the same as the national rate. The center also found that 35% of SNAP recipients are members of working families.

Legislators are fighting to see those benefits returned as the legislature debates cuts to hunger assistance even beyond the federal program, along with work requirements for SNAP recipients.

Ohio hunger budget

The SNAP work requirements in the Ohio House’s draft budget weren’t part of Gov. Mike DeWine’s executive proposal.

If the House’s version of the work requirements become law, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services would be prohibited from “seeking, applying for, or renewing a waiver from the work requirements that apply to able-bodied adults without dependents,” budget documents say.

The Department of Job and Family Services also couldn’t implement a “federal option” to grant exemptions from SNAP work requirements, though the draft budget noted that SNAP benefits are funded by the federal government, so the work requirement doesn’t impact the state budget funds.

The House draft budget kept language from DeWine’s proposal regarding the assessment of SNAP participants who may be eligible for a work requirement waiver. The provision allows the state job and family services agency to refer participants in SNAP and the Ohio Works First programs who are “claiming a mental or physical illness or impairment” to the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities office for “vocational rehabilitation assessment and support.”

Unless Ohioans are unable to meet minimum work requirements, as determined by the disability agency, they would be required to meet work requirements to receive benefits, according to the proposal.

The House budget also would require recipients to report “changes in circumstances that may affect eligibility for continued receipt of benefits” within 30 days of the change, a provision that also bars the job and family services department from “implementing simplified or quarterly reporting procedures for households receiving SNAP benefits.”

Food fight

Advocates for the hungry have said increased support for SNAP benefits is critical for Ohioans who need food assistance, especially as the current SNAP levels often need to be supplemented by food banks and other programs.

“The relationship between food banking and public assistance, particularly … SNAP, is relatively straightforward: SNAP provides more meals than we ever could,” said Hope Lane-Gavin, director of nutrition policy and programs for the Ohio Association of Food Banks, in testimony supporting another piece of anti-fraud legislation, a Senate resolution to urge Congress to restore stolen SNAP benefits.

Lane-Gavin also said significant changes in SNAP can affect “everything from the benefit allotment itself to changes in accessibility in the program’s application and interview.” Those changes are felt throughout the food assistance system, including food banks, she said.

“I offer that to say, even when the program is working as intended, for many Ohio families receiving SNAP benefits, the benefit itself is woefully inadequate.”

Food banks may have to brace for more cuts, as the House’s proposal chopped funding allotted to the Children’s Hunger Alliance via Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) dollars. DeWine’s executive proposal maintained the current funding of $7.5 million over the next two years, but the House proposal slashes it to just $3 million.

The alliance said in a statement that the reduction would cut 2.8 million meals throughout the state, and double the number of schools on a waitlist to participate in alliance programs.

“Across Ohio’s 32 Appalachian counties, children bear the brunt of hunger, and we provide food at 338 sites,” alliance president and CEO Michelle Brown wrote in a call-to-action email sent on Thursday. “In Columbiana and Athens counties alone, this cut represents about 150,000 meals.”

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks has previously pleaded with legislators to help, because the organization couldn’t afford to provide for another increase in hungry families in the state. Federal-level cuts could also be looming.

The House’s version of the budget took up DeWine’s proposal to earmark $44.1 million in TANF funds over the next two years for the association. The governor specified those funds should be used not only to purchase and distribute food, but also for SNAP outreach, along with summer meal programs, free tax filing services and “capacity building equipment.”

The budget also includes a proposal for a sub-grant agreement with the food banks association to distribute food to low-income families and support “transportation of meals for the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Innovative Summer Meals program.”

Through the agreement, the association would be required to purchase food for state food programs, support a capacity-building grant program and pay for equipment for “partner agencies that is needed to increase their capacity to serve more families eligible under the TANF program.”

The Ohio Senate will draft its own budget before the House and Senate drafts can be combined and sent to the governor. The deadline for approval the state budget is June 30.