Cuts to federal food assistance would devastate Ohioans, food banks that help supplement

Federal proposals to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would hurt already struggling Ohioans, crush food banks in the state, diminish the state economy and result in job losses as well, advocates and researchers say.

A budget resolution being considered by Congress would set funding targets for the next decade, and proposals have called for at least $880 billion in cuts from programs covered by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Agriculture Committee, including the nutrition program, SNAP.

“The principal entitlement programs under these committees are Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program … which indicates that these two programs are the principal targets for budget cutbacks,” researchers at The Commonwealth Fund said in a new report released Tuesday laying out the impacts of those cuts on state economies.

A separate analysis released in February by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities stated that, of the at least $230 billion in federal cuts proposed through 2034 from programs in the jurisdiction of the House Agriculture Committee, reductions are “expected to come largely or entirely from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to be used to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest business owners and households.”

“Lawmakers cannot cut $230 billion – or anything close to that amount – from SNAP without slashing benefits, restricting eligibility, or some combination of both,” the center analysis stated.

The population to be impacted the most by these cuts is one that’s already fighting to afford food and supplementing their SNAP benefits with visits to strained food banks.

“I can’t imagine, in our current state environment, what the state would do if they had to take on any other burden for the SNAP program,” said Hope Lane-Gavin, director of nutrition policy and programs for the Ohio Association of Food Banks.

County job and family services agencies are understaffed and underfunded, struggling for help from the state to stay afloat as it is, Lane-Gavin said. And that’s to say nothing of the food banks that are trying to weather the onslaught of Ohioans who need help.

“We continue to break records in numbers of people served, in first-time people served, in amount of food served,” she told the Capital Journal.

As of last month, the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services reported nearly 1.5 million SNAP recipients in Ohio, accounting for more than $258 million in regular funding allotments to the recipients.

Broken down by federal congressional district, the 11th U.S. House District in Northeast Ohio has the largest amount of recipients in the state, with more than 20% of the district’s population receiving assistance from SNAP. The 2nd U.S. House District in Southeast Ohio has the second most recipients, with nearly 16% of its population participating in the program.

With the average SNAP benefit in Ohio sitting at $5.92 per person per day, Lane-Gavin said supplements from food banks are necessary to keep food on the table for many Ohioans, and a cut to funding for SNAP and other assistance would be devastating.

“We can’t afford it; we don’t have the food,” Lane-Gavin said.

The cuts are just proposals at this point, and congressional leaders haven’t laid out specific plans, but a House Budget Committee document gave options for cuts, including a dozen to the SNAP program, according to the Commonwealth Fund research.

Those options included reducing SNAP benefits by eliminating an update to the Thrifty Food Plan, a USDA-developed food plan that estimates the cost of a healthy diet. There are several food plans, but the Thrifty Food Plan develops diet plans based on the lowest cost, representing a “nutritious, practical, cost-effective diet prepared at home for a ‘reference’ family,” defined as a male and female with two children between the ages of 6 and 11.

Other options included in the committee document included expanding a SNAP work requirement.

A proposed budget reduction for SNAP represents a nearly 21% cut in benefits, the Commonwealth Fund found, with $22 billion lost in 2026 alone.

“State economies would be seriously harmed by SNAP cutbacks,” the fund stated. “Their aggregate (gross domestic products) would be nearly $18 billion lower, and total economic output would be $30 billion lower.”

Ohio-level numbers from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities forecast a nearly $8 billion cut from Ohio’s SNAP program between 2026 and 2034, with more than 10,000 SNAP-authorized retailers at risk of losing revenue.

The Commonwealth Fund anticipates about 143,000 jobs lost in the country, including 78,000 “direct job losses in food-related sectors such as agriculture, retail grocery and food processing.”