SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Families are becoming increasingly reliant on local food banks after cuts to Texas\u2019 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were enacted last year in the federal spending bill, sometimes referred to as the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 15% of SNAP recipients last year are no longer receiving benefits, according to public data. Feeding Texas, which represents food banks across the state, attributed the decline to new eligibility rules and work requirements under House Resolution 1.<\/p>\n
As families lose access to SNAP, San Antonio Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper said he has seen more people turn to the food bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m anxious because I know with these policy changes,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cMy line got longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper said that for every meal provided by the food bank, the SNAP program is able to provide nine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a 10% cut to SNAP, the food bank would have to double in size to be able to fill that hole,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThere\u2019s just no way that we could ever step up to that kind of volume.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas has always had work requirements in place to receive SNAP benefits; however, the new legislation removed waivers for adults older than 60, parents with older children, and veterans, which represents a large portion of San Antonio\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a big military city. Some of those waivers were specifically for veterans, people that suffered from PTSD or had mental health challenges,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThose waivers went away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of all the recipients who lost access to benefits, Feeding Texas said more than half were children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s kids that aren\u2019t going to get good nutrition,\u201d Cooper said, \u201cand there\u2019ll be a healthcare cost to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weeding out \u2018fraud\u2019<\/p>\n
Supporters of the benefit cuts have pointed to fraud as justification, but Feeding Texas said less than one-tenth of a percent of state benefits are issued fraudulently.<\/p>\n
\u201cFraud is generally, I think, overstated in SNAP,\u201d Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole said.<\/p>\n
The bigger documented problem, Cole said, is payment errors.<\/p>\n
Nine percent of SNAP payments in Texas were inaccurate over the last financial year, paying either too much or too little.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Agriculture clamped down on these inaccurate payments and issued a deadline that Texas must reduce its payment error rate below 6% within the next fiscal year or face a financial penalty of $709 million. <\/p>\n
Cole said states were not given adequate time to reach the new error rate standard. Feeding Texas is now asking Congress for a two-year extension to meet the target \u2014 the same extension already granted to other states with higher error rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re pushing Congress to do is create a level playing field for all states and give Texas the same opportunity to meet that 6% target as states that are doing way worse,\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n
How to receive SNAP benefits<\/p>\n