HELENA — As organizations across Montana are continuing to look at what impacts the state could see from the federal “One Big Bill,” leaders with the Montana Food Bank Network say they have concerns about changes to SNAP food assistance benefits.
MFBN released a statement this week warning that, if a large number of Montanans lose coverage under SNAP, their partner organizations likely won’t be able to cover the gap.
“For every meal a food bank or food pantry provides, SNAP provides nine,” said Kiera Condon, an advocacy specialist for MFBN. “At MFBN and our network partners, we're already stretched very thin trying to fill the need that's there currently – so we're not going to be able to fill this, and people are going to go hungry.”
More about the demand on food banks:
HR 1, the massive reconciliation bill, will reportedly cut federal nutrition spending by about $186 billion over ten years. It mandates more people who get SNAP benefits to meet work requirements. Currently, the requirements apply to people without minor children and between the ages of 18 and 54; the new law expands them to include those between ages 55 and 64 and those whose children are between the ages of 14 and 18.
Eventually, the law will also lead to Montana having to pay a larger share of the costs for SNAP benefits. It will require states to provide more administrative funding, and states could also be responsible for a portion of the actual benefits if they’re found to have too many errors in payment. In 2024, Montana’s error rate was 8.9% – enough that the state could have to pay 10% of benefit costs if it continues.
“So then the state has to do some serious thought about, are they going to cut eligibility, cut people's benefits, or even possibly opt out of the program?” Condon said.
Supporters of the SNAP changes have argued they’re going to help address waste, fraud and abuse in the program, while opponents have raised concerns about how many people could be affected.
Right now, about 80,000 Montanans participate in SNAP – down from 110,000 at the height of COVID. Condon said MFBN is estimating anywhere from 12,000 to 30,000 of those could stand to lose some or all of their benefits.
Jordan Evertz is the executive director of Helena Food Share. She says, in the last year, they had 820 customers who also received SNAP.
“I think as the reduction in those benefits happen – we’re currently already seeing an increase, and we know there's a lot more community members who are on SNAP and the reduction in social services will just put more people at risk if they don't have access to those other supports,” said Evertz.
Evertz says Helena Food Share has been seeing a greater demand for their services for some time now. That’s been part of the benefit of their new Community Food Resource Center, which opened last year.
“In June, we had the largest daily shops that we've ever had, and I would say pretty steadily increasing the number of shoppers that we have daily in the market,” Evertz said.
Her organization isn’t alone. Condon said, across the state, there’s been an 11% increase this year in visits to food pantries. She said the rising cost of living is a major factor.
“For the people that are already experiencing food insecurity, it's getting a lot worse, and then obviously some people who were maybe not experiencing food insecurity are now going to be experiencing it,” Condon said.
Evertz said, as changes come to SNAP, it’s going to take a full community effort to make sure people’s needs are still being met.
“We don't do the work that we do alone,” she said. “It's really in partnership with other people in the community; it happens because of the generosity of the Helena community. And so we will continue to partner with those individuals and businesses and groups to help support our neighbors.”
