With the passage of the budget reconciliation this summer (2025), we are in truly unprecedented territory since the New Deal and Great Society first sowed the seeds of our current safety net.
The bill cut an estimated $120 billion over 10 years from SNAP – creating a funding gap that even doubling the output of the charitable sector would never fill. And millions of people will now be subject to onerous work reporting requirements – requirements that we know do not increase employment rolls but only serve as an additional barrier to accessing SNAP. The end result of all these cuts and limits is that 2-7.4 million people, or as much as 18 percent of folks SNAP currently serves, are expected to see their benefit decrease or fully lose access to SNAP. In some states, it’s a quarter of all people served by SNAP. That can, and will, not only have devastating consequences for individuals, but states’ economies as well. And this is only the first wave.
Perhaps even more devastating to the cuts to the SNAP budget and to eligibility is the dismantling of the infrastructure that currently allows SNAP to function.
Starting in 2027, states will be required to pay a higher percentage of the admin costs of SNAP – something many states already struggle to pay at the current levels. And, for the first time ever, they’ll also be required to pay a percentage of benefit costs. Some state governments may decide that they are simply unable or unwilling to even offer SNAP to their people – a particular concern in states whose governments are already hostile to public benefits.
That’s all compounded with the other burdens faced by middle and low-income families, like the cuts to Medicaid, end of student loan forgiveness and more. More people will be more hungry, and more people will be newly hungry. It’s bleak, but this isn’t the end of the story.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1) Signing Ceremony
Museum Map
WISHING
TREE
The Proof is in Our History
- 1.Welcome
- 2.Welcome
- 3.The Age of Mass Migration - Landing
- 4.The Age of Mass Migration - Main
- 5.Immigration from Europe
- 6.Early Activists
- 7.The Great Depression
- 8.Charity Is Not Enough
- 9.Hunger is No One's Fault
- 10.The New Deal
- 11.Political Compromises
- 12.An Unequal Recovery
- 13.Back Door Exclusions
- 14.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Landing
- 15.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Main
- 16.The Walk for Decent Welfare
- 17.Televising the War on Hunger - Landing
- 18.Televising the War on Hunger - Main
- 19.Hunger in America
- 20.The Great Society
- 21.Bipartisan Consensus
- 22.Nixon Works to End Hunger
- 23.The Unmaking of the Great Society - Landing
- 24.The Unmaking of the Great Society - Main
- 25.President Reagan
- 26.The Myth of the Welfare Queen
- 27.Cementing Stereotypes into Policy
- 28.A New Bipartisan Consensus
- 29.Where We Are Now - Landing
- 30.Where We Are Now - Main
- 31.The Pandemic
- 32.Patching our Safety Net
- 33.One Big Beautiful Bill Act Signing Ceremony
- 34."Cry with your full throat, without restraint; Raise your voice like a shofar!" - Isaiah 58:1
- 35.Our Wish for the Future
- 36.End tour
Welcome to the Hunger Museum, a virtual project of MAZON.