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Federal proposals to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would hurt already struggling Ohioans, crush food banks in the state, diminish the state economy and result in job losses as well, advocates and researchers say.

A budget resolution being considered by Congress would set funding targets for the next decade, and proposals have called for at least $880 billion in cuts from programs covered by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Agriculture Committee, including the nutrition program, SNAP.

“The principal entitlement programs under these committees are Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program … which indicates that these two programs are the principal targets for budget cutbacks,” researchers at The Commonwealth Fund said in a new report released Tuesday laying out the impacts of those cuts on state economies.

A separate analysis released in February by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities stated that, of the at least $230 billion in federal cuts proposed through 2034 from programs in the jurisdiction of the House Agriculture Committee, reductions are “expected to come largely or entirely from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to be used to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest business owners and households.”

Later in the show, a conversation about how Ohio food banks are dealing with the growing need from families in Ohio while also dealing with funding cuts at the federal and potentially the state level too.

NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks to Joree Novotny, Executive Director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks about the USDA's recent cuts to the food purchasing programs that support families in need.

As part of Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget proposal, food banks across Ohio could see a significant reduction in the amount of state funding they receive. Most of this is due to the loss of what had been a one-time $7.5 million appropriation in the previous budget.

But that decrease has food bank organizers worried.

“It’s about 3.4 million Ohioans who live in households that are under that income limit (200 percent of the federal poverty line),” Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, told the Ohio Capital Journal. “SNAP in Ohio, there’s only about 1.5 million Ohioans who are currently eligible and participating.

So, there’s a wide gap of people who are maybe experiencing food hardship that can’t turn to the SNAP program for help, that are still going to lean on us.”