The "One Big Beautiful Bill" signed into law this month by President Trump includes some big changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. This program helps low-income households purchase food and groceries.
The new law shifts some of the program's costs to states, and it expands work requirements for several groups, including veterans, people who are homeless and parents with older kids. So, how could this impact hunger in North Carolina?
Kay Carter, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, spoke with WFAE's Nick de la Canal.
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Nick de la Canal: Gov. Josh Stein has warned that this law could force North Carolina to come up with as much as $420 million to keep SNAP running. Previously, the state didn't pay anything. It's possible state lawmakers will find a way to fund it, but if they don't, what would that mean for Second Harvest and your clients?
Kay Carter: I mean, it means that people are going to be hungry. If you're suddenly not receiving your SNAP benefits and you have no way to purchase food, then your alternative is going to a food pantry or the food pantries to come to the food banks. It's a very, very significant situation with the SNAP reductions.
De la Canal: You and I spoke in 2020 when food banks were experiencing record demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, grocery inflation has been big in the years since, and keeping in mind that you cover western North Carolina, which was just hit by Hurricane Helene, what does the need look like right now?
Carter: The need continues to go up. You know, inflation has remained stubbornly high. I really try, Nick, to stay above the political fray, right? We don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, independent, we think everyone should be united against children being hungry and against seniors being hungry.
De la Canal: This new law also expands work requirements for SNAP, including for veterans, people who are homeless, former foster youth, parents of children 14 and older, and adults 55 to 64. If fewer people qualify, what kind of ripple effects could we see for farmers, grocery stores and Second Harvest?
Carter: The first way it's going to impact food banks is people are going to lose their benefits that fall into various groups. And as that occurs, they're going to be presenting more often to food pantries and to food banks.
When you lose funds for government commodities and our USDA programs, it also impacts our farmers. They are selling their products through USDA, and so that market will no longer be there for our farmers.
The third thing that is going to occur is the impact on our retail grocery stores. SNAP benefits represent a really large percentage of dollars being spent, particularly in rural grocery stores. Less sales translate into less jobs, less sales could translate into rural grocery stores having to close when they are already at a really thin margin.
De la Canal: What's the outlook for Second Harvest in the coming months? What does the uncertainty do to you in a situation like this?
Carter: We are actively trying to communicate that we need folks to step up and help provide funds that we can use to purchase more food.
And while we have some amazing supporters — shout out to Dave and Nicole Tepper, who just made a tremendous donation to all the North Carolina and South Carolina food banks — there's just no way that states can absorb everything, that food banks can absorb everything.
To give you an example, Nick, (with) our loss of our USDA and our TEFAP, we are estimating that to replace the lost food just from that portion we would have to raise approximately $14 or $15 million additional dollars. That is like raising our entire budget twice. There's just not a possibility of replacing all of that with private funds raised.
