Thousands of Vermonters are at risk of losing federal food assistance under the sweeping domestic policy legislation signed into law last month by President Donald Trump.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides tax breaks to the wealthy while slashing social safety net programs used by some of the nation’s poorest residents. Among the law’s wide-ranging impacts are new restrictions on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, on which some 65,000 Vermonters rely.
The new law makes it harder to qualify for SNAP by imposing stricter work requirements and by revoking eligibility for certain immigrant groups. Roughly 10 percent of people in Vermont’s SNAP program — known as 3SquaresVT — could be impacted, according to state estimates. Many of them are homeless. Vermont will also be forced to pay millions more to administer the program.
The cuts will increase pressure on local food banks, where demand has grown amid Vermont’s affordability crisis, and could hurt small grocers and local farmers who rely on customers who buy products with the benefits.
State officials say they’re working to contact impacted residents before the stricter rules take effect in February. Some may still be exempt from the work requirements for other reasons, such as if they have a disability. Others may need to make adjustments to meet the new rules. But the impacts could be severe.
The cuts will increase pressure on local food banks and could hurt small grocers and local farmers who rely on customers who use the benefits.
“Congress created a policy and passed a bill that’s going to put our veterans, our parents of young children, older Vermonters, all kinds of people across the spectrum … at risk, and that is really unconscionable,” said John Sayles, CEO of the Vermont Foodbank, at a press conference in Barre last week.
Made permanent in 1964 under president Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program, food stamps have long served as a vital strand of the American safety net, ensuring that tens of millions of families don’t go hungry.
In Vermont, anyone earning less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level — about $28,000 for a single person or roughly $59,000 for a family of four — can qualify, and the average recipient receives about $187 a month. That money gets loaded onto a debit card that can be swiped at more than 600 participating food retailers and 40 farmers markets.
The benefits provide a critical, though not entirely adequate, way for low-income people to feed themselves, said Tom Donahue, CEO of BROC Community Action, which works with many clients on SNAP across Rutland and Bennington counties. “It’s not the whole budget, and it’s far from it,” Donahue said. “People are sometimes surprised when I talk about 3Squares and how much people get; it’s not what they might have imagined.”
Currently, adults without disabilities or dependent children can access SNAP benefits for just three months every three years, unless they can verify that they’re working at least 80 hours a month. Certain groups, including veterans and homeless people, are exempt from these work requirements.
The new law eliminates those exemptions. It also requires people to work until they are 65 and requires people with children 14 and older to work. (Previously, people 55 and older and anyone with dependents were exempt.)
The changes will impact at least 4,000 Vermonters who are currently exempt from work requirements, according to state data. They include about 2,300 people with teenage dependents and about 1,600 people who are homeless. (State officials did not have data on how many people between the ages of 55 and 64 will be impacted but said many will likely remain eligible under other exemptions.)
Some people may already be working or volunteering enough hours to meet the new rules. But research shows that whenever social welfare programs create new requirements, eligible applicants get caught up in the red tape.
“There’s going to be people who meet every requirement, and then the paperwork gets messed up because they don’t have an address,” Donahue said.
The new law also cuts off benefits for certain noncitizens living in the U.S. legally. (Undocumented residents already don’t qualify.) Among the newly ineligible are refugees, people who have been granted asylum and survivors of human trafficking. State officials estimate 1,650 people will lose benefits in Vermont due to this change.
Congressional Republicans say the changes are necessary to tackle fraud and abuse and will ensure that people on social benefit programs contribute to society. But critics argue that research on work requirements has consistently yielded mixed results, effectively reducing SNAP participation without increasing employment. This can be especially pronounced in rural states such as Vermont.
Advocates are calling on lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott to increase support for state-funded nutritional programs in response.
“Vermont has a long legacy of being a leader in bold policies that ensure food security for all,” said Ivy Enoch, director of policy and advocacy at Hunger Free Vermont. “Now is the moment to lead again.”
The state began its current fiscal year with large reserve funds that Scott and lawmakers created with federal cuts in mind. But different interests will compete for those dollars at a time when the rest of the social safety net is also fraying, and it’s unclear whether the state will be able to offset the SNAP losses.
Doing so could become even more difficult as the federal government begins offloading more of the cost. States currently split SNAP’s administrative costs with the federal government. Starting next year, though, states will need to pick up 75 percent of the tab, a shift that’s expected to cost Vermont about $8.5 million.
States with a high error rate — meaning they mistakenly pay people too much or too little — will also be required to pay a portion of the benefits themselves, which, as a result, could force them to scale back their programs. Vermont’s rate of 5 percent remains just below the 6 percent threshold, allowing the state to avoid those extra costs. But the margin for error is slim.
Among those impacted by the new federal law is Natasha Long, 35, who is currently exempt from work requirements because she is homeless. Long spent time living on the streets due to a drug addiction and has relied on SNAP benefits to get by.
Now four months sober, Long is staying at a temporary shelter in Barre and receives the maximum monthly amount: $292. But the dollars don’t go nearly as far these days. “Grocery store prices are just crazy,” she said, recalling days when a carton of large eggs used to cost less than $3. “Now it’s $5, $6 in some places.”
Complicating matters, she’s allotted only half a shelf in the shelter’s community fridge, which prevents her from buying in bulk. She’s usually exhausted her benefits within two weeks and visits a food shelf run by Capstone Community Action, a nonprofit that serves central Vermont, to feed herself the rest of the month.
People who use Capstone’s food shelf in Barre must fill out an intake form describing their situation. Most file in the fall, as the new fiscal year begins, according to Emmanuelle Soumeilhan, the shelf’s director.
But on a recent tour, Soumeilhan picked up a manila folder on her desk and flipped through its contents: dozens of forms that had been submitted in the past week alone. Typically, she’ll get no more than 10 per month.
“People that haven’t been here in ages are coming back all of a sudden,” she said. “They’re nervous. They’re stocking up. They’re taking all the canned goods and loading up their cupboards, because they’re worried SNAP’s gonna snap.”
Demand at Vermont food shelves spiked during the pandemic and has yet to subside. Ramping up to meet even higher need in the wake of SNAP cuts could be difficult for the mostly volunteer-led organizations. Some donations are down as people tighten their wallets amid a period of economic uncertainty.
Meanwhile, the Vermont Foodbank learned earlier this year that it would be receiving less food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a result of federal budget cuts.
Donahue, of BROC Community Action, said he expects his two food shelves to be “bombarded” once the SNAP cuts go into effect. He was confident that his nonprofit would be able to meet the moment, thanks in part to a robust program in which local restaurants and grocery stores donate still-good food that they would otherwise throw out.
Others aren’t so sure.
The Colchester Community Food Shelf is already struggling to stock its shelves due to lagging donations and rising grocery prices. Volunteers say meeting higher demand could force them to scale back the amount of food they provide.
“We see a lot of the same faces every month,” food shelf president Rebecca Wager said. “You get to know them. It’s hard to say, ‘We have to give you less this month.'”
Long, the Barre woman, is volunteering at Capstone’s food shelf to build up her résumé. The hours she logs should allow her to remain on SNAP until she can find a new job. But she worries about her friends still living on the streets, many of whom aren’t in stable enough situations to work or volunteer.
“We lost sight a long time ago of taking care of people,” she said. “But this is just ridiculous.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Little Benefit | The federal budget bill will make it harder for Vermonters to qualify for food assistance. Food shelves are bracing.”
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