SAN ANTONIO – Families are becoming increasingly reliant on local food banks after cuts to Texas’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were enacted last year in the federal spending bill, sometimes referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
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.
As families lose access to SNAP, San Antonio Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper said he has seen more people turn to the food bank.
“I’m anxious because I know with these policy changes,” Cooper said. “My line got longer.”
Cooper said that for every meal provided by the food bank, the SNAP program is able to provide nine.
“If there’s a 10% cut to SNAP, the food bank would have to double in size to be able to fill that hole,” Cooper said. “There’s just no way that we could ever step up to that kind of volume.”
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’s population.
“We’re a big military city. Some of those waivers were specifically for veterans, people that suffered from PTSD or had mental health challenges,” Cooper said. “Those waivers went away.”
Of all the recipients who lost access to benefits, Feeding Texas said more than half were children.
“There’s kids that aren’t going to get good nutrition,” Cooper said, “and there’ll be a healthcare cost to that.”
Weeding out ‘fraud’
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.
“Fraud is generally, I think, overstated in SNAP,” Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole said.
The bigger documented problem, Cole said, is payment errors.
Nine percent of SNAP payments in Texas were inaccurate over the last financial year, paying either too much or too little.
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.
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 — the same extension already granted to other states with higher error rates.
“What we’re 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,” Cole said.
How to receive SNAP benefits
The San Antonio Food Bank provides additional services beyond just fresh food.
Anyone looking to apply to receive SNAP benefits can get assistance from the food bank by calling 210-431-8326 or meeting with the benefits assistance team in person at its office at 5200 Historic Old Highway 90.
If you know someone who needs help, you can also start an e-referral for them, and a member of the San Antonio Food Bank will reach out within 24-48 hours to assist with the application.
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