Opinion: Americans must demand SNAP benefits be restored. Nearly 63K CT residents lost them

Hartford Courant – Sunday, August 30, 2026
By Eliza Kinsey, Roxanne Dupuis, Arthur Caplan

It has been just about one year since President Donald Trump signed H.R.1 — his so-called One Big Beautiful Bill — setting the stage for drastic cuts in government spending and adding burdensome work requirements for hungry Americans to get basic foodstuffs.

The nation’s largest social safety net program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), took a particularly huge hit — $187 billion in cuts. Already, 5.5 million Americans including nearly a million kids have lost their food benefits. Americans must demand that those now running for Congress restore this program.

Nearly 63,000 Connecticut residents have lost federal nutrition benefits according to a new report from Connecticut Voices for Children. The locations that are hardest hit are among the poorest parts of the state. Not only are these areas projected to lose the most in SNAP benefits, they are also the areas of Connecticut with limited access to nutritious food.

For the first time in the history of the program, states are now responsible for a big share of the cost of food benefits, not just the administrative expenses, with the precise federal amount determined based on state-level ‘error’ rates in benefit payments. This is a dramatic departure from the long-standing federal-state partnership in which the federal government consistently covered 100% of SNAP food benefits. Even fairly wealthy states like Connecticut are straining to cover these added costs for food benefits.

In response to this massive financial blow some states have begun implementing hurdles to accessing SNAP. For example, in an effort to minimize Federal financial sanctions, some states have increased the documentation necessary to verify a person’s SNAP eligibility. This increase in administrative burden drives down SNAP participation. Not surprisingly, SNAP caseloads are already down in every state since the passage of Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, by 10% or more in 19 states. These new application hurdles mean that some households will struggle to navigate the complex system and lose their benefits, not because they are ineligible, but because the administrative barriers states are imposing to protect their budgets have become inscrutable.

SNAP is a lifeline for America’s most vulnerable. Veterans, people experiencing homelessness, former foster youth, and older adults ages 55-64 — all formerly exempt from work requirements — now must work at least 20 hours per week or risk losing their SNAP benefits and going hungry.

Our research has shown that SNAP is an especially important resource for families as they manage chronic health conditions. Receiving consistent food assistance helps smooth some of the financial stress many low-income families in the U.S. face and this can improve things like medication adherence and mental health and reduce reliance on costly emergency medical care. When families lose their benefits or run out of benefits towards the end of the month, they are often forced to make difficult tradeoffs to make ends meet, frequently compromising their health in order to pay rent, keep the lights on, or feed the kids.

For more than half a century, SNAP/food stamps has been doing what it was meant to do — effectively reducing food insecurity. Children and families, who are already disproportionately affected by food insecurity, are especially heavily impacted by these cuts, as new SNAP work requirements put excessive burden on parents of adolescents and loss of benefits will eliminate automatic eligibility for free school meals.

The additional work requirements to be eligible for SNAP should not have come as a surprise. They reflect the familiar American ethos of “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps,” emphasizing that nothing is owed and everything must be earned. However, food and work are not inherently linked. Food is a fundamental human right. It is morally obligatory to ensure that we are not leaving children, the elderly, veterans, youth leaving the foster system, the homeless, and individuals with disabilities — most of whom cannot work — susceptible to food insecurity.

A nation that is building a new presidential ballroom, plastering gold-plating all over Washington and spending nearly $40 billion in 5 months on an unnecessary war has the resources to feed all its people. Those running for national office should make it clear whether they think feeding children, veterans who can’t work and the elderly is a national responsibility. Restoring SNAP benefits is a moral priority and should be a top line issue for the mid-terms.

Eliza W. Kinsey, PhD, is assistant professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Roxanne Dupuis, PhD, is senior research scientist, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Arthur Caplan Ph.D., professor emeritus, NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

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