More than 26,000 New Jersey residents have been kicked off their monthly food benefits since the Trump administration’s federal work rules took effect, state officials said.
Emergency food advocates say it’s only going to get worse, further straining food pantries that are already seeing surging demand amid soaring gas prices and stubbornly high living costs.
“One of the most alarming things is it's just the beginning,” said Elizabeth McCarthy, CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, an anti-hunger group. “We really expect this to keep happening.”
The work requirements passed by congressional Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump last summer overhauled the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps families afford groceries. The changes required states that were exempt from work requirements because of high unemployment rates to comply and made more groups of people subject to those rules, such as homeless people, veterans and older adults.
Republicans said it was necessary to incentivize people to work and cut down on fraud, though a 2021 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds SNAP, showed tighter work requirements didn’t increase employment or earnings but did decrease SNAP participation rates.
The rules took effect in most New Jersey counties in February, and gave SNAP recipients ages 18-64 a three-month grace period to comply. Recipients need to prove they are consistently working, volunteering or in school every month in order to keep their benefits.
Data provided to Gothamist by the state’s Department of Human Services shows Essex and Hudson counties are most affected by the new federal work rules. More than 6,800 people lost their benefits in Essex County and more than 3,200 people are off SNAP in Hudson County. The numbers reflect individuals who didn’t meet work requirements, or file a medical exemption in May and June.
About 800,000 New Jerseyans, or one in 11 residents, rely on the program. More than 340,000 are children.
Officials with the Department of Human Services said they've been working with other agencies to expand volunteer opportunities and prioritize work programs for SNAP recipients. They’re also working with counties to better screen recipients for potential exemptions to the work rules, such as a disability or medical condition. Cape May County and Camden City remain exempt from the rules and were granted a waiver from the rules over work availability in those local areas.
Emergency food advocates say many New Jerseyans are working but have seasonal or gig work that isn’t consistent and others are confused about how to meet the new requirements, which are being enforced by each county.
McCarthy said it’s too soon to have numbers on whether food pantries are feeling the ripple effects from families losing their SNAP but she said anecdotally food providers said families are coming in after getting cut off from SNAP.
”We are bracing ourselves and purchasing more food and getting a lot more donations, and in some cases making choices about the foods that we purchase and trying to shift to cheaper proteins, for example, while keeping it as healthy as possible,” she said.
But she added that for every one meal food pantries provide, SNAP provides nine.
“That is not something that can be absorbed by the charitable food system,” McCarthy said.
