The impact of Trump’s food stamp changes on single parents : NPR
Mara is a single mother of two in Minnesota. She and her family rely on SNAP benefits to make ends meet.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
Even though Mara is unemployed, she is busier than ever.
When she’s not caring for her two children, Mara is at her desk applying for jobs. She goes through her things to see what she can pawn to buy toiletries. Or, she sifts through bills, calculating which ones can wait and which ones need to be paid immediately.
Soon, Mara, a single mother from Minnesota, may have another task in her busy schedule: figuring out how to buy food for herself and her family.
This is due to new work requirements for people receiving assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps.
“It would be so hard” to lose SNAP benefits, Mara said. “Without SNAP, there’s no money for food.” Mara asked that her last name be withheld given the stigma attached to receiving government assistance. She also worries that speaking publicly will affect her chances of getting a job.
Previously, SNAP recipients with children under age 18 were exempt from work requirements requiring recipients to work, volunteer, or participate in job training at least 80 hours per month. But now, under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that exemption only applies to people with children under 14 — the age Mara’s youngest child was in December.
“It would be so hard” to lose SNAP benefits, Mara said.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
The Trump administration says the mission of the nation’s largest hunger-relief program has failed.
“SNAP was intended to be temporary help for those falling on hard times. Today, it has become so large that it leaves fewer resources for those who truly need help,” the White House said in a statement in June.
But policy experts say the SNAP changes don’t fully take into account the unique challenges facing single parents like Mara or the sluggish job market in many parts of the country. They argue that losing food aid will only create more obstacles for recipients who struggle to find work.
The timeline for implementing the new SNAP policy varies by state and county. In Mara’s home state of Minnesota, recipients who don’t qualify for an exemption or meet work requirements risk losing their aid as early as April 1. Others may have more months depending on the next date they need to certify that they are eligible for benefits.
More than 100 applications
Mara imagined she would already have a job.
It was August when she was laid off from her part-time administrative assistant position due to workplace restructuring. Since then, Mara estimates she has applied for more than 100 positions. She also attended career fairs and took free workshops on resume writing.
She’s been working since high school, she said, but “I’ve never been out of work for more than a month, so it’s very difficult.”
Mara spends time working on the computer at CareerForce, a resource for Minnesota job seekers, on March 4.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
Although she misses her old job, Mara said it couldn’t support herself and her children, so she relies on SNAP benefits.
Many recipients are in the low-wage labor market, where job security is often unpredictable and employee turnover tends to be high, according to Lauren Bauer, a researcher at the Brookings Institution who has studied SNAP extensively.
“SNAP is supposed to be there to help people smooth over this situation and not drop the bottom when they experience a job loss,” she said. “And this policy doesn’t take that into account at all.”
Mara’s lowest point came in November when the government shutdown led to disruptions in SNAP benefits. Not only was she looking for a new job, but she was constantly looking for where to find her family’s next meal.
“Maybe I’m looking for food during the day when I should have been looking for a job,” she said. “Then I try to make up that time in the evening after my kids go to bed.”
During the break, Mara turned to food banks, which revealed other challenges. First, pantries aren’t always enough to feed an adult and two growing teenagers, she said. Second, they often lack gluten-free foods, which is essential for her daughter who has celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that causes digestive problems if gluten is eaten. Gluten-free products tend to be more expensive.
If Mara loses access to SNAP again due to new job demands, she fears another period of long days spent searching for the right food and enough to feed her family.
“I would depend so much on finding food shelves or food banks,” she said. “There wouldn’t even be time to live.”
“We’re going to see an increase in poverty. We’re going to see an increase in food insecurity.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 2.4 million people will lose their food benefits in a typical month over the next decade because of the new SNAP requirements — including 300,000 parents like Mara with children 14 or older.
Gina Plata-Nino, director of SNAP at the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center, says many of the affected beneficiaries will be single mothers who make up the majority of single-parent households in the United States. She added that the changes target a group that often lacks or struggles to afford a support system to help them care for their children.
“How can they have a full-time job when they have to pick up their children [for] various activities?” she said. “And they work – but not enough hours because they have to be there for their children.”
Mara shops at a local discount grocery store.
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
The new law also imposes work requirements on veterans, homeless people, young adults aging out of foster care, and able-bodied adults without dependents aged 55 to 64.
It also tightened the criteria for waiving work requirements for beneficiaries in high-unemployment areas. Previously, there were several ways to determine a weak labor market and obtain a waiver. Now this only applies to places where the unemployment rate is above 10%. (Alaska and Hawaii have a different measurement.)
For those who do not meet work requirements, SNAP provides assistance for up to three months over a three-year period. But Bauer of the Brookings Institution says that’s not enough and that the impact of the SNAP changes will be widespread.
“We’re going to see an increase in poverty. We’re going to see an increase in food insecurity. We’re going to see increasing pressure on the charitable food sector,” she said.
Mara is holding her favorite anchor ring, which says “God be to me.”
Caroline Yang for NPR
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Caroline Yang for NPR
With anxiety hanging over her head, Mara tries to show courage to her children. She doesn’t want them to worry, explaining that her recent struggles have reminded her how difficult adult life can be.
“I remind them that it’s not their responsibility and they’re not responsible for me or what’s happening,” she said. “I say, just know that you will become a child.”
