Snap enrollment decline reaches 13% under Trump administration changes
US food stamp enrollment fell 13%, from 41.6 million in July 2025 to 36.5 million in June 2026, according to USDA data, following Snap restrictions imposed by the Trump administration that stakeholders say have pushed more people toward food banks or hunger.
Snap enrollment decline reaches 13% under Trump administration changes
The number of Americans receiving food stamps has fallen sharply over the past year. Snap enrollment dropped from 41.6 million in July 2025 to 36.5 million in June 2026, a 13% decrease, according to USDA data.
Stakeholders say the restrictions imposed by the Trump administration have forced more people to seek help from food banks or to go hungry. The drop has not been even across the country: in Arizona, Snap enrollment fell 50% between July 2025 and June 2026, while Kentucky experienced a 6% decrease.
Stricter work requirements under the One Big Beautiful Act
The enrollment decline follows changes to Snap written into the One Big Beautiful Act, which the Congressional Budget Office projects will reduce spending by about $187bn over 10 years.
The law tightened the Snap work requirements. Before the change, only able-bodied people between ages 18 and 54 who did not have dependents under 18 had to meet a requirement: working at least 20 hours per week, or losing benefits after a maximum of three months over three years.
Under the new rules, the requirement covers a wider group and applies more broadly:
- People from ages 18 to 64 who do not have a dependent under 14 must perform paid or volunteer work for at least 20 hours weekly.
- Starting in October, states must cover 75% of Snap administrative costs, up from half before.
- From October 2027, states must pay for some Snap benefit costs if their payment error rate exceeds 6% - a measure the USDA says is not a measure of fraud - though states above 13% receive a delay.
Joseph Llobrera, senior director of research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' food assistance team, said states must pay more for existing work while also finding funding to reduce error rates. "States have been really set up to fail," Llobrera said.
Food banks report rising demand
Charities and food banks say the pressure is already visible. The Food Bank Council of Michigan's Snap helpline began receiving more than three times as many daily calls after the changes took effect, and this week it temporarily suspended the helpline because of the high call volume.
In Louisville, Feed Louisville founder and executive director Rhona Kamar said communities must accept helping a percentage of people and provide resources to those who need them. "There is always going to be a percentage of our communities who we need to help – we have to accept that," Kamar said.
Kamar said the demand is outpacing supply at her organization. Every day the shelves are empty at the end of the day, she said, so every bit of food that comes into the kitchen goes straight out to the community.
The strain has reached state government in Kentucky, whose enrollment fell 6%. Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, wrote to US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins this month to say he is concerned the Snap changes are making more people in his state go hungry.
I am concerned more people are going hungry in my state because of changes to Snap, impacting children and the elderly.
Sheril Kirshenbaum, the Food Bank Council of Michigan's chief external relations officer, said the funding pressures could mean longer processing times and longer waits for people who need assistance.
Administration defends the cuts
The administration has presented the falling enrollment as a success. At a farming festival in Minnesota in August, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called moving 5 million people off food stamps a big win, saying that for those who love and celebrate work and want people to work rather than be on food stamps, the decline is welcome. "Democrats don't love" the decrease, Rollins said at the same event.
A USDA spokesperson said the number of people receiving benefits constantly changes and is not representative of any one policy.
We don't have the data to suggest that there are more jobs suddenly out there. We just know fewer people are getting benefits.
That assessment, from Kirshenbaum, stands against the administration's framing. Factcheck.org has also noted that the US added 776,000 non-farm jobs between January 2025 and September 2026, compared with 2.6 million during the last 20 months of Biden's presidency. Critics add that grocery and gas prices have increased during Trump's second term despite his promises, making necessities harder for families to afford.
Gina Plata-Nino, director of Snap at the Food Research and Action Center, pointed to wages as the underlying issue: if people were getting paid enough, she said, they would not be on the Snap program.
Schools lose free meal eligibility
The changes also reach into schools. If at least 25% of a student body are recipients of Snap or some other public benefits, the school can participate in the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows it to serve free breakfast and lunch to all students without requiring household applications.
As Snap rolls fall, that eligibility is slipping away. In Houston independent school district, 26 schools that previously provided free meals to all students under the Community Eligibility Provision are no longer eligible for the program, the Washington Post reported.
A recipient's view from Louisville
Sandra Scott, a 58-year-old homeless woman in Louisville, knows what the benefits meant for her. Until she started receiving Snap benefits four years ago, she ate at soup kitchens or wherever she could, and on weekends she sometimes had nowhere to go.
Scott has had six back surgeries and has struggled with mental illness. She got sober from methamphetamines two years ago, lives in a subsidized apartment, is working toward her emergency responder certificate, and volunteers with The Table, a non-profit restaurant that uses a pay-what-you-can model.
Asked what she would tell the Trump administration, Scott was direct.
Why don't you walk in one of our shoes, somebody in the community that doesn't have anything.
The USDA spokesperson did not respond to a question about concerns that the Snap changes have forced some Americans to go hungry.
