Even When SNAP Payments Resume, More Food Cuts Will Affect Millions of Americans

At last count, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) delivered cash-like benefits for buying food to 42 million lower-income people per month, about 12 percent of the country’s residents. Started in 1964 as part of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society effort, SNAP is the largest anti-hunger program in the U.S.

But what many lawmakers, journalists, and Americans fail to recognize is that SNAP is also a hugely successful public health operation. “SNAP has functioned to dramatically reduce food insecurity in this country,” said LDI Senior Fellow Christina Roberto, Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Improving food security contributes to health improvements, research shows.

Despite the program’s advantages, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed by Congress this July reduces SNAP availability and, will likely increase food insecurity “by a substantial amount,” said LDI Senior Fellow Aaron Richterman, Assistant Professor of Infectious Disease at Perelman. Tens of thousands of recipients will likely die over the next 14 years, research predicts.