For Erinn Rowe, the math is simple: Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as outlined in the federal Reconciliation Bill – i.e., the One Big Beautiful Bill – will end at least some of the food assistance that thousands of families in South Carolina receive; that reduction will lead to more of those families turning to food banks; and food banks have little idea how they are going to keep up with demand when Fiscal Year 2027 kicks in.
That’s when cuts to SNAP go fully into effect, with adjustments to age and work requirements:
· Those considered ABAWD – Able Bodied Adult Without Dependents – between ages 18 and 64 must work, volunteer, or attend school for at least 80 hours per month. The work age was raised from 54.
· ABAWD veterans and people experiencing homelessness are no longer exempt from the work requirements. Those formerly in foster care are no longer exempt at 18 (formerly 24).
· Native American and Alaska Native people are now exempt from ABAWD requirements.
· ABAWD exemptions for parents are reduced to having children younger than 14 (formerly 18).
· SNAP recipients who also get Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) money must be at least 60 years old or have a disability in the household.
According to a study by Urban Institute, 299,000 families in South Carolina could lose all or some of their SNAP benefits. That includes 59,000 losing at least $25 per month – the average projected to be $103 per month.
Urban Institute’s calculations also include 43,000 working families in the state and 48,000 families with children.
These numbers stem from changes in the bill will place a cap on future increases in SNAP’s Thrifty Food Plan – “the cost of groceries needed to provide a healthy, budget-conscious diet for a family of four,” according to USDA.
Urban Institute concluded that capping those amounts will cause “some amount of reduction in everyone’s benefits.”
Republicans in the U.S. Congress say the amended requirements aim to get people working and away from dependence on government aid; and that childcare and tax credits will offset some of the money lost to SNAP cuts.
In a virtual press conference last week, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott called the Reconciliation Bill “a really, really good bill for the working class families.”
But food assistance workers like Rowe, CEO of Harvest Hope, say that while it’s too soon to tell exactly how many SNAP recipients will lose full or partial benefits, it’s not easy to be optimistic.
It also is uncertain whether future increases to SNAP payments will adjust for inflation or rising food costs. More certain is that the cost of food rose by 23.6% from 2020 to 2024, according to USDA.
“I'm not a doomsdayer,” Rowe said. “I don't like approaching anything from that perspective because I don't think it's helpful, but I am looking at it from math. There's a percentage of a population that's currently utilizing these benefits to feed themselves that [are] about to be turned off.”
Those people, Rowe said, are likely to turn to food banks like Harvest Hope more frequently, because “they still have to eat, because they're humans.”
Rowe isn’t convinced that work requirements will level things out. She’s also not convinced that for SNAP recipients who do work – three in four recipients do, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – there will not be any kind of pay raise to offset the cost of having to buy food.
Omme-Salma Rahemtullah, executive director of FoodShare South Carolina, is equally dubious that money lost to SNAP cuts will allow recipients to maintain their access to fresh produce.
FoodShare, South Carolina created the Fresh Food Box program, which, in essence, packs $30 worth of fresh produce into a box that sells for $20 to SNAP clients. Fifteen dollars of this is offset by Healthy Bucks, a program offered through the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
“We are really making those SNAP dollar stretch as much as possible,” Rahemtullah said.
However, she is worried that SNAP cuts will force clients into bad food decisions if they have to reallocate money to buy food.
“We're making produce accessible to low-income and low-access communities across the state,” she said. “So, what is that going to mean for us when these SNAP cuts are put into effect? It's going to mean that families in South Carolina are not receiving nutritious food, right? It's going to kind of slide back into convenience and ultraprocessed food.”
Rahemtullah’s reasoning is that as families who get SNAP funds can spend their own money on other things for their households, like utilities. But if SNAP assistance drops, less money available to pay for food could easily become a bad choice as to what food to buy.
“If you're a mom with two kids and you have $5 to spend on dinner, what are you going to buy?,” she said. “The extra large ultraprocessed frozen cheese pizza? Or a head of broccoli and two oranges?”
That worries Rahemtullah in a state that ranks among the least healthy in the U.S. – 37th healthiest, according to the 2024 America’s Health Ranking report by United Health Foundation.
“And this comes at a time when the federal government is also MAHA-ing, right? Make America Healthy Again,” she said. “I obviously believe in the message, but you're not providing the means to do so.”
For Susan Dolphin, executive director of HOPE in Lancaster, the drop in TEFAP funds – The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which helps food banks buy food – is an additional hit.
“SNAP and TEFAP go hand in hand,” Dolphin said. “If [recipients are] not going to get the SNAP and then we're also not going to get TEFAP, that is where there's going to be a bigger relying on the communities to support smaller food pantries like ours, to make sure that everybody has meals.”
TEFAP is projected to lose $100 million by 2034.
Since February, Dolphin said, HOPE in Lancaster has seen the number of people coming in for assistance double.
Like Rowe and Rahemtullah, Dolphin finds the problems with food assistance to be rooted in politics – the kind through which hunger is approached by big swings from whichever administration is in charge today, only to be undone by the administration that takes over tomorrow.
“ I would hope, and have faith in those that are smarter than me and have more power than me, that they think about each person as their neighbor, not as a constituent,” she said. “ I hear all the time, ‘My constituents.’ OK, what about your neighbor?”
Someone directly affected by SNAP cuts is Quazenia Weaver, a mother of three in Rock Hill. Weaver gets $345 per month in SNAP assistance and is worried that if she loses any of it, she will have to make choices about how she spends what little money she has.
“I won't be able to go wash clothes like I am now,” Weaver said. “Not buy my daughters what they need, and stuff like that. So it'll hurt me real bad.”
