The cost of groceries is up this summer. The news comes as Gulf Coast food banks say they’re feeding a record number of hungry families. Many of those individuals also get by with the help of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. Formerly called food stamps. As you may have heard, Congress recently voted to shift a greater burden of SNAP funding to the states. In the first of a two part report on food insecurity and food access, here’s takes a look at what those changes to SNAP might mean for Alabama’s hungriest residents.
“For me it felt shameful especially as a man who's expected to provide for his family,” said Keller Bozeman winces when recalling the hardest days of the Great Recession. He’d lost his job as a bartender and every morning lined up with other Baldwin County, Alabama residents hoping to find work as a day laborer. Out of money, he applied for food stamps. More than a decade later, Bozeman is a successful electrical engineer.
“It feels good to have climbed out of that and gotten out of that system, but I feel no shame about it now. You know, the system the system worked,” said Bozeman. For him, food stamps were a helping hand up as he worked his way through college. But the nation’s largest anti-hunger program is changing. And not everyone may have the same chance Bozeman did. Each year about one in seven Alabamians rely on SNAP to buy groceries. More than half of those are families with children. Many others are low income elderly or disabled adults. And their numbers are growing. Data from the nonprofit Feeding America shows food insecurity on the gulf coast rose by 25 percent over the past two years.
“We put out 42 million pounds of food and provided 35 million meals last year, which was an unfortunate record,” said Michael Ledger. He’s president and CEO of Feeding the Gulf Coast. He’s worried about changes to SNAP. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Trump makes it harder to qualify for food assistance. It also increases the age limit for working adults, adds work requirements for adults with teenage children, and requires states to shoulder a portion of both administrative costs and SNAP benefits.
"I can't see a segment of the population who currently or may in the future need SNAP benefits that won't in some way be impacted,” he said.
Volunteers stock shelves at the Baldwin County Angels food pantry in Loxley. That includes palettes of fresh peaches, potatoes, and corn. Doors open at 1 pm but the first car has been waiting since ten. By noon three rows of cars line up on the hot asphalt.
“Most of these are new from last week. At least half of them,” said the non-profit’s Director Alicia Bass worries about the rising number of people in need. To prove her point, she picks up a thick stack of applications.
Bass says about a quarter of the pantry’s clients use SNAP. But high grocery prices eat into the $200 per person average monthly allowance. And others individuals no longer qualify.
“Some of the elderly is because they got an increase in their social security and it cut all the food stamps out,” she observed.
Statistics show food banks like this one can only provide one meal for every nine meals SNAP provides. Feeding the Gulf Coast’s Michael Ledger says that makes any impending cuts a problem.
“You know, I would call that nearly insurmountable for food banks to make up that difference,” he said.
Denying or reducing SNAP benefits could also trigger a domino effect. Alicia Powers is managing director of Auburn University’s Hunger Institute. She says it’s too early to predict the fallout from changes but says they will likely be far reaching.
“If a SNAP household with a child loses their SNAP benefits, there is the chance that they could lose access to free school breakfast and school lunch,” she said. Powers adds without SNAP individuals could also lose programs that double dollars for fresh produce. And in rural communities, independent grocers relying on SNAP for revenue - may be forced to close.
“So people who are living in super rural, super urban, that’s where we see food insecurity the most. So that’s where we’re going to see this impact the most,” she said.
The federal government will continue to fully fund SNAP benefits until Sept 2027 - giving states a year to work through their budgets. The nonprofit Alabama Arise predicts changes could cost the state more than 200 million dollars annually. Republican Senator Greg Albritton chairs the Alabama Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee. He says he and his staff are still digging into the bill.
“I'm optimistic. I think uh I don't think there's been anything extremely draconian here,” the Senator said.
Nonetheless he plans to hold budget hearings this August.
“I just think we got to get to the public and let them know that hey we're we're looking at this,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out what we're doing and we want the people to know that we're trying to figure it out.”
As states like Alabama try to figure it out, Ledger with Feeding the Gulf Coast hopes the federal government’s effort to trim SNAP doesn’t backfire.
“Sometimes when you're trying to save a dime, you cost yourself a dollar later,” he said.
Sometimes dollar stores are the only shopping option for those with food insecurity. Tomorrow morning on APR, Cori Yonge teams up with Coastal Community College’s Chef Matt Palamara to find out what it looks like to shop and cook from a dollar store.
