SerpApi.Org
Nearly 82,000 Alabamians have lost food assistance in the past year, including over 23,000 children.
That’s according to new data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, showing an 11% decline in enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP.
“People need food assistance today just as much as they did a year ago,” said Ty Jones Cox, vice president of food assistance at the nonpartisan research nonprofit. “And they’re simply being cut off from assistance as states scramble to limit their exposure to the massive new cuts they face.”
The big drop in SNAP enrollment is a result of the Big Beautiful Bill that was championed by President Trump and passed by Congress in July of last year, according to experts and the CBPP.
“It’s not because people don’t need help affording groceries,” Jones Cox said. “Grocery prices are still rising. Unemployment has been largely flat since before the law passed, real wages have actually declined.”
The enrollment drop is happening quickly in Alabama and nationwide. In March, the number was at 52,480 people who no longer had food assistance, and local experts predicted that 100,000 Alabamians would drop off the rolls by the end of the year.
There are over 330,000 kids who rely on SNAP in Alabama.
The latest data show a 7% decline in enrollment for kids in Alabama between July 2025 and May of this year. Experts warn that could mean “an oncoming childhood hunger crisis.”
“SNAP is in the middle of the steepest, fastest decline in participation in decades,” Jones Cox said.
Across the country, SNAP participation has already fallen by more than 4 million people, which far exceeds initial predictions. Shortly after President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill was passed last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 2.4 million Americans would lose their benefits.
According to the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the state agency that administers SNAP, Alabama’s decline is happening because the federal law imposed new work requirements in order to receive food stamps.
“The enrollment rate started to decline following implementation of new eligibility standards passed as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement to AL.com in May.
Under the Big Beautiful Bill, work requirements for the federal food assistance program were changed to apply to more older adults, and to remove exemptions for veterans, homeless people, and young people who have recently aged out of foster care.
The work requirements now generally apply to able-bodied adults between 18-64 who don’t have dependents younger than 14. Previously, work requirements ended at 54 years old and didn’t apply to adults with dependents younger than 18.
The new requirements say they must work, participate in employment and training programs, or volunteer at least 80 hours per month. If they don’t show proof of meeting the requirements, they can only receive SNAP benefits for three months within a three-year period.
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics warns that children could face the most severe, lasting impacts of these cuts.
In Alabama, 23,324 kids who were enrolled in SNAP last year are no longer in the program.
Andrew Racine, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said food is one of the biggest determinants of health for kids, affecting their behavior and their ability to do well in school.
“A hungry child is a stressed child, and that chronic stress will have long-term implications for the child’s health as an adult,” he said. “ To the extent that we are making policy decisions today about foregoing the opportunity to feed hungry children, we are having consequences that will haunt us going forward a generation from now, and it’s entirely avoidable.”
Racine said he worries most about the cuts that are still to come that could cause states to drop their SNAP programs altogether.
Beginning in October 2027, any state with an error rate higher than 6% will have to contribute some of its own money to administering SNAP.
And according to recent data, Alabama’s error rate is going up - from 8.32% in 2024 to 9.52% in 2025.
If Alabama’s rate stays above 6%, the state would be responsible for about $170 million in additional expenses to maintain its SNAP program. That’s a cost state lawmakers have said they can’t afford.
“We don’t have $174 million,” said Kirk Fulford, deputy director of the Legislative Service Agency, during a budget presentation to Alabama legislators earlier this year. He cautioned lawmakers that next year’s budget could present serious challenges.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, is pushing for a two-year delay in shifting costs to states. If that doesn’t happen, experts warn it could be the end of Alabama’s SNAP program.
“We’ve got three outcomes,” Laura Lester, the CEO of Feeding Alabama, the coalition of food banks in the state, told AL.com earlier this year. “We come up with $180 million which everyone’s made it very clear we cannot do looking at our budget for next year. What’s left is either the federal government allowing every state the same two years to correct their error rate, or eliminating the program altogether.”
Racine said if Alabama chooses to opt out of SNAP, “that is the worst possible outcome for the children in that state for sure.”
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