Media Coverage

The esteemed Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and the robust network of similar nonprofits in the Ohio Association of Foodbanks have never met a challenge they could not slay.

Over the years, their critical mission has been far too important to let any pesky nuisances such as a national economic recession or a global health pandemic stand in their way of delivering essential food assistance to tens of thousands in the Valley and millions in Ohio.

Thousands of Ohio’s 1.5 million food assistance recipients could lose eligibility for food assistance, with others seeing a possible reduction in their benefits, over the next few years under the new federal budget.

Leaders of area organizations that help hungry people are bracing for an expected uptick in need and fear that the influx will come at a time when food banks and pantries themselves are struggling to keep shelves stocked.

“People who might have previously been able to turn to SNAP as the first line of defense against hunger, may not be able to turn to it now, whether that’s because they’re not able to find a volunteer placement, or they’re between jobs or they fell through the cracks of of additional bureaucracy through really no fault of their own,” said Joree Novotny, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

Nearly half of all patrons of Ohio’s network of food banks, which includes Second Harvest Food Bank in Springfield, are also SNAP recipients, Novotny said.

Thousands of Ohio’s 1.5 million food assistance recipients could lose eligibility for food assistance, with others seeing a possible reduction in their benefits, over the next few years under the new federal budget.

Leaders of area organizations that help hungry people are bracing for an expected uptick in need and fear that the influx will come at a time when food banks and pantries themselves are struggling to keep shelves stocked.

The state is expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars per year that flow from the federal government to poor Ohioans to buy groceries, a result of changes made by Republicans in the Statehouse and the U.S. Congress

The most significant cuts stem from the federal legislation, and some pieces of the bills don’t take effect until 2028. But once fully implemented, they could blow an estimated $416 million per year hole in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which would either force lawmakers to find new money for the program or cut services or benefits.

Under the new federal rules, state governments must cover a share of the cost of the program benefits – a first in SNAP’s 61-year history.

Plus, the new rules will force the state to absorb a greater share of the current costs of administering the program. And because Ohio’s program is administered at the county level, county governments also face millions in new costs to prop up the already-underfunded programs, according to interviews with policy experts and fiscal analyses of the new legislation.

The cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the coming years are going to pin the state with an estimated $318 million in new costs for program benefits and about $98 million in administration.

Plus, work requirements under the bill now extend to those aged 55 to 64, including some with children. They will also require homeless people and veterans to comply while ending SNAP benefits for refugees and asylees.

Cuyahoga County, the state’s most SNAP-reliant population center, expects millions in new costs. Franklin County expects 9,000 more adults aged 55 to 64 will need to meet the new work requirements, as will 4,000 households receiving SNAP benefits with children in the 14-17 range.

Jake Zuckerman talked to experts who say that while some people may lose eligibility, no one’s monthly benefits will be reduced in the short term. However, unless the state finds new money for the program, there will likely be cuts to services and benefits down the line.

Also looming is the move by state lawmakers to cut by 25% a wholesale food purchasing program run by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, another backstop against hunger, according to its executive director.

Passed and signed into law last Thursday and Friday, the Republican-majority Congress’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” makes major changes to federal food assistance, including by eventually shifting extensive costs onto states.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which assists low-income families, is almost entirely federally funded and has been that way for decades. States only share administrative costs.

But SNAP will undergo structural change in 2028 to account for federal tax cuts.

Under Republican President Donald Trump’s reconciliation bill, Ohio would have to absorb about 10% of the benefit costs for its own SNAP program, likely totaling more than $315 million, according to analysis from the left-lean think tank the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

In 2024, Ohio had an error rate of 9%, which is the measure of its eligibility and benefit determinations. Any state with an error rate higher than 6% will have to shoulder anywhere from 5% to 15% of benefit costs under the bill, according to the CBPP. Congress also extended work requirements, affecting millions.