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Sweeping changes to the federal food assistance program known as SNAP have been kicking in across the country. These changes have to do with requirements to prove people getting help are working, and they're the result of President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. NPR's Juliana Kim reports.
JULIANA KIM, BYLINE: At a food bank in Nevada, staff have been fielding calls from nervous SNAP recipients.
BETH MARTINO: What we're hearing from the people we serve is really a lot of uncertainty and a little bit of fear because they do know that changes are happening.
KIM: That's Beth Martino, the president and CEO of Three Square Food Bank. The changes that Martino is referring to have to do with who needs to prove they work in order to get help paying for groceries.
MARTINO: They are worried, and it isn't because they aren't working hard or because they're not trying to meet requirements. It's because they know that the math for them will no longer work if those food assistance benefits disappear.
KIM: President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act expanded SNAP work requirements. They now include veterans, former foster youth, homeless individuals, parents with a child older than 14, and able-bodied adults between 55 and 64 without dependents. Under the new law, all of these groups must now prove they work, volunteer or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. The impact won't be felt nationally overnight, though, because some states started enforcing these changes earlier than March 1, while others had waivers to delay enforcement. The Trump administration says they're concerned people are taking advantage of the program. But policy experts argue that a majority of SNAP participants do work or they're actively job hunting.
LAUREN BAUER: Many SNAP participants are working. They're working in the low-wage labor market, which is super volatile, and there's a lot of job turnover.
KIM: Lauren Bauer is a fellow at the Brookings Institution and the associate director of The Hamilton Project and has studied SNAP extensively.
BAUER: And SNAP is supposed to be there to help people smooth that and not let the bottom fall out when they experience job loss, and this policy doesn't account for that at all.
KIM: SNAP also waives work requirements for places with high unemployment rates. But the One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed the criteria, making it harder for an area to qualify. Back in Nevada, Martino is especially worried about the loss of waivers.
MARTINO: We hear also through our call center when we're helping people enroll in SNAP that people are putting in hundreds of job applications and they're not hearing anything back. So finding work, especially in some of our rural areas, is really challenging for people.
KIM: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that due to all these changes, 2.4 million people will be cut off SNAP in a typical month over the next decade.
Juliana Kim, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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