Nearly 14 years ago, in 2011, while at the doctor’s office for a prenatal visit, I was referred to the local Women, Infants, and Children agency, or as the nurse called it “WIC.” What in the world is WIC, I wondered? I scanned through the program pamphlet, which had an inviting image of a mom cradling an infant, a bulleted list of foods offered for free to eligible WIC participants, such as milk, eggs, fruits, vegetables, tofu, whole wheat bread, beans, and infant formula, plus the program’s short description of available nutritional and breastfeeding support for moms and their kids.
At the time, I was 20 years old, living in Alpine, my rural Texas hometown of 5,000, and coping with a high-risk pregnancy because of a cervix condition and high blood pressure. I was eager—well, desperate really—to learn anything I could about healthy pregnancy and parenting. I worked as a barista at the local coffee shop (a job I look back at with fond memories), but around my third trimester I got strict orders from the doctor that being on my feet for too long could exacerbate my health risks. With a reduction in my work hours, trips to the grocery store were unnerving. Please go through, please go through…I’d say to myself as I waited for the debit card machine to say, “Approved.”
Participating in the [WIC] program made nutritious foods such as black beans, grapefruits (which I had an insatiably strange craving for), cheese, eggs, tomatoes, and spinach accessible on my income.
When I went to the WIC office, I learned I was eligible for the program. WIC not only gave me a high-quality breast pump to borrow and a lactation consultant to guide me through my nursing journey, but also participating in the program made nutritious foods such as black beans, grapefruits (which I had an insatiably strange craving for), cheese, eggs, tomatoes, and spinach accessible on my income.
Then, as a single mom cobbling together my earnings with two part-time jobs while attending school full-time in pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree, I received support through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Knowing I had that SNAP assistance—which is considered the country’s most effective tool to combat food insecurity—staved off anxiety when I budgeted for higher-cost groceries such as salmon, chicken, cheese, fresh fruits and vegetables, and milk.
I’m no longer receiving SNAP or WIC, but I know firsthand how vital these programs are for those who are in need.
Now, over a decade later, I’m no longer receiving SNAP or WIC, but I know firsthand how vital these programs are for those who are in need. In the US, about 42.1 million people per month, or 12.6 percent of U.S. residents, rely on SNAP in order to feed themselves or their families. To put the numbers in perspective, 81 percent of SNAP households include a child, an elderly person, or a person with disabilities. Folks who are unhoused are also eligible for SNAP. With rising food prices, imagine budgeting for yourself or your family on $6 a day per person, which is the average amount SNAP recipients will receive in fiscal year 2025. I also knew after reading Project 2025 that these federal nutrition programs would be on the Trump administration’s chopping block.
Those fears of households who rely on federal nutrition programs are inching towards reality. On February 25, the Republican-controlled House, by a very small margin, passed a budget resolution that called for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a $2 trillion cut in mandatory spending. Even though 47.4 million people are food insecure in the US, the cuts passed in the resolution could cut or severely weaken federal nutrition programs such as SNAP, as well as the School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program, which aim to ensure that kids don’t go hungry at school by providing free or reduced cost breakfasts and lunches.
Anti-hunger advocates and folks who rely on federal nutrition programs are saying the uncertainty about the impact of these cuts is at an unprecedented high.
“This budget slashes at least $230 billion from food assistance programs at a time when grocery prices remain at record highs,” said Representative Brendan Boyle, D-Pennsylvania. “And it proposes, and I hope every American listens to this, it proposes at least $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. All so billionaires can get even a bigger tax cut that they don’t need and the hard-working people in this country can’t afford to give them.”
Right now, anti-hunger advocates and folks who rely on federal nutrition programs are saying the uncertainty about the impact of these cuts is at an unprecedented high.
“There’s a lot of anxiety, I would say, in our communities, particularly around SNAP, but also around HUD, too, because they’re on federal housing. It’s very unclear what could possibly happen to them,” said Sarah Stripp, the director of socioeconomic well-being at Springboard to Opportunities, a nonprofit working alongside residents of federally subsidized housing as they pursue their goals in school, work, and life.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, states that it will be impossible for lawmakers to cut $230 billion to SNAP, or any amount in that ballpark, without axing benefits, adding more restrictions to eligibility, or reshaping SNAP into a block grant and having states pay for the benefits. If the budget passes the Senate on March 14, these severe cuts will leave about 40 million Americans, including about 1 in 5 children, in the lurch about how they’ll pay for their groceries in the near future.
Linda Ramos, a single mom in Mount Vernon, New York, learned she qualified for Medicaid and SNAP at a shelter for domestic violence victims after leaving an abusive relationship. She says without SNAP, she’s not sure how her family would survive.
“You can’t tell your kids you can’t eat today,” Ramos said. With the help of SNAP currently, Ramos can cook her son’s favorites like sautéed chicken breast with peppers, onions, carrots, and broccoli, with a side of beans.
Experts say that SNAP is a proven anti-poverty tool that mitigates hardship while also supporting local farmers, grocers, and farmer’s markets that participate.
SNAP participation is reflective of the overall economy, says Salaam Bhatti, the SNAP director for Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). “If the economy is bad, then that means the SNAP participation will be higher,” he said, “If the economy’s going well for everybody, then SNAP participation will naturally decrease.” For instance, when households are laid off or see their income decrease, experts say that SNAP is a proven anti-poverty tool that mitigates hardship while also supporting local farmers, grocers, and farmer’s markets that participate. Research also links SNAP participation to better health outcomes and lower healthcare costs.
SNAP is also an important aid when natural disasters like wildfires or hurricanes occur, since Disaster-SNAP or (D-SNAP) provides benefits to affected households who, on usual circumstances, aren’t eligible for food assistance.
“Under what set of values does a budget target those who struggle to pay their bills for severe cuts, while giving an annual tax cut averaging $62,000 for those who make $743,000 or more a year?” asked Sharon Parrott, the president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute.
In an effort to create empathy towards those who rely on SNAP, FRAC is organizing a SNAP Challenge from March 18 to 20, 2025, inviting communities and policymakers to only spend $6 per day, per person on groceries. Perhaps lawmakers who voted to pass the budget resolution might gain some insights if they put themselves in the shoes of folks who receive food assistance by allocating only $6 to spend for themselves and their families on food per day.
If households throughout the country lose SNAP, food banks and pantries throughout the country are likely to get hit very hard. Along with SNAP, free school lunch and breakfasts will be endangered. Some experts worry about any cuts or added barriers to USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows schools with a significant population of low-income students to provide free meals to all students. Currently, more than 24,000 schools serving more than 12 million children receive free lunches. If the CEP has more stringent eligibility requirements for schools and parents/guardians, millions of children could be directly impacted and lose access to free meals from their school cafeteria.
Groups like Louisiana Appleseed, a nonprofit organization that advocates for justice, opportunity, and education in Louisiana, have advocated for CEPs in their community for several years, said Ifeyinwa Davis, a policy analyst for Louisiana Appleseed. “The impacts of our work have been felt; hundreds of Louisiana schools have adopted CEPs and successfully regularly provided meals to school aged children,” she wrote to me in an email. “Without these programs, Louisiana children would be deprived of the nutrition that is essential to their academic achievement.”
Another program that feeds children with healthy meals during school is The Local Food for Schools (LFS) Cooperative Agreement Program, which is a USDA program that helps states purchase local food for schools and child care and also support the launch of new farm-to-school programs by integrating more local foods into their meal programs. Sunny Baker, a senior director of programs and policy at the National Farm to School Network, said that as they are considering what to cut, she hopes that Congress is mindful of “the level of importance of this investment in our food system and how much this is making a difference in local and regional food systems—and with upcoming tariffs and supply chain shortages, and the firing of FDA people, we are going to need a more robust local and regional food system.”
The ultimate devastating impact of cutting some portion or all of these programs is the fear that they might never come back. “Once these things are gone, it is going to be so hard to build them back, right? Whether that’s creating the infrastructure for the programs again, or being able to hire federal staff again, because people aren’t going to want to work for the federal government after all of these [layoffs],” said Stripp, adding that these programs are only about two percent of the federal budget.
If the federal budget cuts to SNAP or Medicaid go through, participants will likely get kicked off of WIC. In most cases, folks are income-eligible, but it would require them coming back into the office to fill out more income paperwork and get recertified, which can be a major burden for expectant or new moms, who are sometimes “barely keeping their heads above water” right before or after having a baby, according to Alison Hard, a director of public policy at the National WIC Association.
Tipoko Kabore, a former WIC participant and member of the National WIC Association’s advisory council, said that WIC saved her family when they immigrated from West Africa to Columbus, Ohio in 2012. Kabore, who now has a Master’s in Social Work, says that WIC provided her with nutritional education and assistance that allowed her to focus on studying and taking care of her family. She expresses gratitude to policymakers for creating and funding food assistance programs like WIC and SNAP.
“It will break my heart if, in the future, they will not be able to fund WIC or SNAP,” said Kabore, who explained that these programs helped her buy items like tuna, spinach, and oats for her family. It wasn’t just food that programs like WIC offered; Kabore said her WIC agency also gave out free books for families in the program. “My kids were receiving baby books and I started to read them at night, and I learned the language, English, with my kids,” she said.
Cristina Colunga, a mom of five in Chicago and another member of the National WIC Association’s advisory council, says that her family has only stayed afloat through programs like WIC. She says that even though she once relied on government assistance, she still went out and volunteered at food pantries or at her children’s schools. “Even though I was receiving the help, I also gave back and I hope to be a good example to my kids that no matter what may become of their life, they can always be productive citizens, give back, be empathetic to others that may not have what they have, and leave the world a little bit better than they found it.”
Right now, many anti-hunger advocates say that the best way to push back and save SNAP and national school lunch and breakfasts is by calling your members of Congress (it takes less than five minutes). Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) put together a step-by-step explainer with phone numbers and a script you can use and share with your community. “Keep those calls going to legislators’ offices. Cause I mean, when I was in DC, I watched them answer those calls,” said Baker who went to D.C. a few weeks ago to meet with members of Congress to advocate for farm-to-school programs.
And if you have the resources, donate to your local food banks and check in with friends and family to see how you might galvanize your efforts or even lend them a home-cooked meal if they are in a time of need.
Natalie Pattillo is documentary filmmaker, writer, and journalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Her bylines can be found in The New York Times, VICE, New York Magazine, Saveur, and more. Natalie is co-director, writer, and producer of the documentary AND SO I STAYED, which tells the stories of survivors of abuse who are unjustly incarcerated for their acts of survival. She is currently working on her second feature-length documentary, WRITING FOR MY MOTHER, which explores the declining adult literacy rates in America. In her free time, Natalie enjoys gardening and cooking with her three kids and husband.
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