Nicolai Haugsted
A crucial necessity will soon be gone for millions, due to the president’s latest decision.
Dinner tables across parts of America are looking a little different than they did a year ago.
For a growing number of families, food pantries are replacing government assistance programs, and long waits, paperwork requirements and unanswered phone calls are becoming part of everyday life.
New figures received by Reuters show that millions of Americans have lost access to food assistance since major changes to the country’s food stamp system took effect last year. Nowhere has that shift been felt more dramatically than in Arizona.
Arizona sees the sharpest decline
According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 4.7 million Americans have left the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since July of last year.
Arizona stands out from every other state.
Participation there has dropped by roughly half over the past year, leaving more than 457,000 residents without benefits. Nearly 196,000 of them are children.
State officials say Arizona has moved quickly to comply with new federal requirements introduced under President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law.
“Arizona has no choice but to meet these requirements,” said Liliana Soto, press secretary for Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs.
“If we don’t comply, we will be fined hundreds of millions of dollars and more vulnerable Arizonans will lose their food assistance.”
Families describe mounting obstacles
For Angelica Garcia, a single mother of three living in Tucson, renewing her benefits became a months-long struggle.
Applications, phone calls and office visits eventually resulted in approval, but not before her household lost two months of support.
“There’s hoops to jump through — always,” Garcia said.
“But now the government is adding more hoops.”
During that period, her family relied heavily on food pantry donations and low-cost staples such as rice, beans and tortillas.
Phoenix resident Myriam Flores described similar challenges after losing access to more than $1,000 per month in benefits.
“There are nights of crying, nights of not sleeping, when I lose sleep at 2 a.m. doing the math, deciding what to pay for and what to put off,” she said.
Food pantries under pressure
As SNAP enrollment falls, food banks are experiencing unprecedented demand.
Data from the Arizona Food Bank Network shows roughly 843,000 people sought food pantry assistance during April, surpassing the number of people receiving SNAP benefits in the state.
Even after demand eased slightly in May, food banks continued serving hundreds of thousands of residents.
Terri Shoemaker, executive vice president of the Arizona Food Bank Network, said charities are struggling to compensate for the loss of government assistance.
Food pantries are attempting to fill what she described as “a massive gap.”
Workers on the front lines say many applicants are getting stuck in lengthy administrative processes.
“So many of them have lost their benefits,” said Cindy Bernardo of the St. Vincent de Paul pantry in Phoenix.
“And they have reapplied, and most of them can’t even get an answer to their questions.”
Tougher rules, fewer recipients
Experts say several factors are contributing to the sharp decline.
Federal reforms expanded work requirements and introduced new standards that can financially penalize states with high error rates in their SNAP programs.
Arizona has responded by tightening verification procedures and requesting additional documentation from applicants, including pay stubs and housing records.
Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said those changes are creating bottlenecks.
“They can’t get through on the overloaded phone line, or they’re being asked for more and more paperwork that they can’t provide, or they do provide it but the state doesn’t have capacity to process it,” she said.
Joseph Palomino of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress argued that many eligible people are now struggling to maintain access to benefits.
According to him, applicants are increasingly “falling through the cracks.”
Changes spreading nationwide
Arizona’s decline is the most dramatic, but similar patterns are appearing elsewhere.
USDA data shows food stamp participation has also fallen sharply in states including Louisiana, Virginia and Wyoming.
Supporters of the federal overhaul argue the changes reduce waste and strengthen oversight.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the reforms “prioritizes American citizens, and implements reasonable cost-sharing measures with states to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Critics, however, warn that the consequences are increasingly visible at food banks and community organizations across the country.
“The primary impact of this law on the Commonwealth is that now more families are going hungry when nobody should have to go hungry,” said Virginia Department of Social Services spokesperson Michael Pulley.
With new requirements continuing to roll out nationwide, state agencies, food banks and families are all preparing for further changes in the months ahead.
