Yves here. We previously highlighted the challenges faced by food banks following cuts to SNAP benefits, and the situation has only worsened. With rising food prices exacerbated by factors like a strong El Niño and increased diesel costs, the predicament is becoming increasingly severe.
It is crucial to remember that hunger causes long-term harm to health. It heightens susceptibility to diseases and affects work performance, while also hindering cognitive development in children. Height often reflects nutrition standards—during World War I, soldiers from working-class backgrounds in the UK tended to be significantly shorter than their aristocratic counterparts. Today, among Harvard Business School graduates, height remains a top predictor of starting salaries.
However, the underlying intention behind policies that inflict hardship on the poor is to intensify income and power disparities, ultimately empowering the wealthy.
By Jake Johnson, a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
Food banks across the United States, from New Mexico to Oregon to Illinois, are experiencing a dramatic surge in demand. This spike comes as federal nutrition aid cuts enacted last summer under President Donald Trump begin to take effect, stripping millions of Americans of crucial benefits amid soaring grocery prices—a situation that spells disaster.
“Our freezers are getting empty,” remarked Eddie Nelson, manager of a food bank in Dallas, Oregon, to a reporter from Oregon Public Broadcasting. The report highlighted long lines at the food bank that “stretch out the door and around the corner at the end of the month,” when federal food stamp benefits disappear and families struggle to maintain their food supplies.
Approximately 4.5 million individuals—including around 1.5 million children—have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits since the implementation of the Trump-GOP budget law last year. This legislation established around $200 billion in cuts, the largest in SNAP’s history, as well as new work reporting requirements that could jeopardize aid for millions more.
The widespread loss of benefits, coupled with the expectation of rising hardships, has placed immense pressure on local food banks.
Pam Molitoris, the executive director of the Central Illinois Food Bank, stated during a panel discussion last month that their organization “cannot absorb” the fallout from federal nutrition cuts, emphasizing that “we are one meal to every nine meals provided by SNAP.”
“We are feverishly fundraising and consulting with our board about the need to provide grants, but the reality is we are constrained,” Molitoris explained.
Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reported a significant uptick in demand this year due to the combined effect of aid cuts and a deepening cost-of-living crisis, forcing families to turn to charities for help. Over 18,000 individuals in New Mexico have lost their SNAP benefits between July 2025 and April 2026, as detailed by a tracker maintained by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“You can view SNAP as the first line of defense against food insecurity in our country; food banks represent the last line of defense,” said Jason Riggs, the advocacy director at Roadrunner, earlier this week. “We need both systems to function efficiently.”
Feeding America, a nonprofit network comprising hundreds of food banks, asserts that the Trump-GOP cuts to SNAP translate to a loss of up to 9 billion meals annually—“more than the total provided by the entire Feeding America network of food banks, meal programs, and church pantries last year.”
Despite mounting evidence of the harm their cuts have inflicted on communities across the nation, Republican lawmakers seem reluctant to take substantial measures to alleviate the damage—much less reverse the funding reductions. GOP senators are working to advance a farm bill that would only delay for one year the Republican budget law’s potentially catastrophic shift of a significant portion of SNAP costs to states.
Earlier this month, the Republican farm legislation failed to move out of committee, blocked by Democratic opposition and the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“While giving states more time to implement the benefit cost-share is a step in the right direction, increasing the SNAP costs for states in exchange for a one-year delay only escalates the unprecedented burden on those states. Children will be the ones to suffer as a result,” remarked George Kelemen, senior vice president of the No Kid Hungry campaign. “Over 4.5 million people, including more than a million children, have lost access to SNAP in the past year.”
“Those families are now missing out on the nutritious food provided by SNAP,” Kelemen added, “and tragically, that number will only rise under this proposal.”
