SNAP cuts are taking a toll on the thousands of Pennsylvanians losing benefits: ‘I fell into a downward spiral’

Enrique Fuentes counted on the $250 he received monthly in federal nutrition assistance to cover the cost of groceries. That changed last month.

Fuentes works three days a week as a technician assisting therapists who help autistic children and adults, ages 3 to 22. He is one of an estimated 3 million able-bodied Americans who do not work enough hours to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under a law signed by President Donald Trump.

“They cut me off because you need to work more than 20 hours a week to get benefits, and I didn’t have those hours,” said Fuentes, 27, who lives in Philadelphia. “I wasn’t even aware of that stipulation.”

Roughly 4 million Americans are expected to lose SNAP benefits in 2026 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Many of them do not meet work requirements added to the anti-hunger program under the legislation, which paid for Trump’s tax cuts with cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.

In Pennsylvania, around 144,000 SNAP recipients could see benefits cut this year — an estimated 45,000 in Philadelphia and 12,000 in its collar counties, according to Pennsylvania Department of Human Services estimates.

Without enough food, Fuentes, who has an associate’s degree in psychology, felt overwhelmed, he said. He is consulting Community Legal Services, which serves people in poverty, for help.

“I fell into a downward spiral. It’s been upsetting,” he said.

“Lots of people didn’t know the rules, thinking the winds of Washington don’t affect them. But they do.”

Since January, advocates say, they have begun to hear from increasing numbers of people suddenly being removed from the program.

“The White House is rifling through our pockets for lunch money,” said George Matysik, executive director of the Share Food Program, a major provider of food to hundreds of pantries in the region. The cuts constitute “a rounding error for the federal government but [the money is] a lifeline for working-class families,” he added.

Asked for comment on criticism of the SNAP cuts, a White House spokesperson did not address the program. Instead, the spokesperson praised Trump for helping U.S. families by “fixing” former President Joe Biden’s “broken economy.”

The spokesperson said that benefits meant for American citizens are “no longer supporting illegal aliens.” But undocumented immigrants have never been eligible to receive SNAP benefits, according to the American Immigration Council, a group that provides legal services to immigrants.

Because the new law revises categories of SNAP recipients — many of which will go into effect at different times — people are uncertain about what they may lose and when. Others who have already seen reductions say they are growing apprehensive because they don’t know whether the law is the reason, or whether bureaucratic adjustments or errors are the cause.

“Will all this change result in mass panic?” wondered Cailey Tebow, an education outreach coordinator for AmeriCorps VISTA, a national service program designed to alleviate poverty. Tebow works with low-income individuals in Northeast Philadelphia. “It’s scary to think what will happen when people realize what’s being taken from them.”

Hoa Pham, deputy secretary of the Office of Income Maintenance in the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which administers SNAP in the state, is more hopeful. She said she believes the efforts her department has been making will help Pennsylvanians understand SNAP revisions and will “avoid chaos.”

One category of potential confusion is the change in work requirements.

Until Trump’s spending plan rewrote the rules, groups of low-income people in Pennsylvania and other states were exempt from a long-standing requirement that childless adults without disabilities and under the age of 54 work, volunteer, or go to school 20 hours per week in order to be eligible for SNAP benefits.

The work stipulation had been waived for decades because of high levels of poverty and hunger, as well as diminished job opportunities in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the state.

Under the new policy, childless, able-bodied adults — whose age limit has now been increased to 64 — can be exempt from the work requirements only in areas with at least 10% unemployment — a rate of joblessness considered catastrophic, experts say. In November, Philadelphia’s unemployment rate was 4.8% and other areas in the region saw similar or lower rates.

“Work requirements in SNAP will put forward a substantial amount of bureaucracy that Pennsylvanians have to contend with,” Pham said. “It could kick many people off SNAP. The impact to people could be severe.”

She added that reducing SNAP rolls should not be construed as a savings for taxpayers, as Trump and other Republicans have long argued. That is because food insecurity exacerbates health problems, which will add other costs in the long term, Pham said.

“That will just drive up healthcare and insurance costs,” she said.

At the Jenkintown Food Cupboard last week, “anxiety about what will happen is growing,” said Nicolino Ellis, the executive director. “But bellies are already aching from hunger. Life is already crumbling today.”

Outside the cupboard at the Jenkintown United Methodist Church, food was distributed in a driveway to clients who drove up in cars. A phalanx of volunteers slid bags of perishables and shelf-stable foods into trunks and back seats.

As SNAP benefits dry up while food prices soar, cupboards like this one become overburdened. But they are a less efficient means of feeding Americans in need, according to Stuart Haniff, CEO of the nonprofit Hunger-Free Pennsylvania.

“For every single meal distributed at a food pantry,” he said, “SNAP provides nine. And need in Philadelphia increased 140% over the last two years.”

Shelley Gaither is one of the hundreds of people receiving groceries from the pantry.

Gaither, 51, is a former data analyst with an MBA who suffered a disability that caused her to stop working at a Malvern finance company 13 years ago. She now collects Social Security Disability Insurance and lives with her three sons, ages 6, 9, and 18, in Cheltenham.

Gaither said that in January, her SNAP payment dropped from $400 to $200. “I don’t know if it was a new formula from the government cutting me back, or some other reason,” she said in a phone interview. “No one told me why. It’s not supposed to happen when you have a disability. It’s crazy.”

Whatever caused the cut, Gaither said, she is in trouble, and worried the benefit will shrink even further.

“Now, the money I used to pay for electricity and water has to go for food,” she said. “This makes surviving more difficult.”