Editor’s note: This story is the second in a series about changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, sometimes called food stamps.
Part 1: Food assistance changes by Congress and General Assembly put pressure on N.C. counties
Food pantries across North Carolina are struggling to keep up with increased demand after the federal government tightened food stamps requirements last summer.
About 5.2 million Americans have lost their SNAP benefits since the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” took effect and changed eligibility, according to the Food Research & Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy group.
Some legal residents who are not citizens — like refugees and asylees — can no longer use the program. Work eligibility requirements have also tightened for some.
Congress’ Republican leadership has argued that the changes will ultimately benefit SNAP, and President Donald Trump has said a stronger economy has “lifted off” millions from the program.
“When the American people understand what we are doing here, they applaud it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told CBS News last year. “This is a wildly popular thing because we have to preserve the programs. What we’re doing is strengthening Medicaid and SNAP so that they can exist, so that they’ll be there for the people that desperately need it the most, and it’s not being taken advantage of.”
On the ground in North Carolina, though, those who feed the hungry say the situation is dire.
“Risk is an understatement. It’s an existential risk,” Jason Kanawati Stephany, a vice president at Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, told NC Local.
The nonprofit serves 34 counties east of Greensboro. In that region, 630,000 people are food insecure, Kanawati Stephany said. Cuts to other programs that helped farmers after the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened the problem. The war in Iran has also raised diesel costs and, in turn, food prices, he said.
“Our communities are facing the worst hunger crisis that we’ve seen in at least a generation,” he said.
The concerns are familiar. Many charitable groups across North Carolina say they cannot replace SNAP, the country’s biggest food assistance program.
“While our member food banks work diligently to meet every need, they cannot make up the difference that SNAP funding reductions will cause,” Feeding the Carolinas said in a statement. “For every meal our food banks can provide, SNAP can provide nine. The scale that SNAP helps our neighbors cannot be replicated by the charitable food system.”
In some places, problems have piled on
A survey released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York earlier this year found higher food insecurity levels in the United States than during the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago.
Recently, Families Forward Charlotte has been referring more people to food pantries, Executive Director Carrie Christian said. It’s not just changes to food stamps driving referrals.
“We’re certainly seeing more need in food, and that relates also to the inflation and the increase in costs of groceries,” Christian said.
The nonprofit runs a two-year-long program in which parents learn more about finances, health and more. The goal is to help parents provide a more stable life for their children by the end.
Even before the changes to SNAP in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” visits to MANNA FoodBank facilities ballooned in recent years, spokesperson Micah Chrisman said.
Before the pandemic, MANNA reported about 65,000 pantry visits per month across the 13 counties it serves in Western North Carolina, Chrisman said. Just before Hurricane Helene, there were 158,000 monthly visits on average.
Now, MANNA said pantry visits total about 220,000.
Kanawati Stephany with the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina said that while North Carolina’s Republican-led General Assembly and Democratic governor have “invested significantly” in food purchasing and hunger relief, this year’s elections will be particularly important when it comes to food relief.
Already, the nonprofit is seeing the effects of rising costs for diesel, fertilizer and more, he said.
“We’re a nonpartisan organization; we have broad bipartisan support,” he said. “But hunger is on the ballot, right? The leaders that we elect are going to make decisions about what — if anything — we do to prevent this crisis from spiraling out of control.”
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