Food Access in America: Federal Programs, the 2025 Law, and States

Food access in America runs through a network of federal nutrition programs, state initiatives, and charitable food distributors that together feed tens of millions of people each month. SNAP, WIC, and the school meal programs do most of the work, backed by TEFAP food that flows to food banks and by smaller programs for seniors and Native communities. That system is now under its biggest strain in decades: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed on July 4, 2025, cuts nearly $187 billion from SNAP through 2034, expands work requirements, and shifts new costs to states, and more than 3 million people have already lost benefits.¹

How Many Americans Struggle to Afford Food

The USDA’s most recent data, covering 2024, found 13.7 percent of U.S. households — 18.3 million in all — were food insecure at some point during the year. Of those, 7.2 million households experienced very low food security, meaning members skipped meals or cut back because they could not afford groceries. About 47.9 million people lived in food-insecure households.²

Households with kids are hit harder. In 2024, 18.4 percent of households with children were food insecure, and about 751,000 children lived in households where at least one child had very low food security.² An Urban Institute survey from December 2025 using a different methodology reported that nearly one in four adults said their household was food insecure in the prior 12 months, rising to 32 percent among working-age adults living with children.³

The 2024 rate is well above the levels seen from 2016 through 2021. It also varies sharply by state — three-year averages range from about 9 percent in North Dakota to over 19 percent in Arkansas.² Feeding America puts the national food budget shortfall — the gap between what food-insecure people can afford and what an adequate diet costs — at more than $32 billion.⁴

Who Is Most Affected

From 2001 through 2016, food insecurity rates for Black and Hispanic households were consistently at least double those of white households, a disparity that persists even after adjusting for income.⁵ In 2024, very low food security rose specifically among Black, non-Hispanic households.² In some counties, food insecurity rates for Black and Latino residents reach nearly 60 percent.⁴

Geography matters too. Of the counties with the highest food insecurity rates, 86 percent are rural and 86 percent are in the South.⁶

Federal Programs That Help People Get Food

The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service administers 15 federal nutrition programs.⁷ A handful do most of the work.

SNAP

SNAP is the largest, providing monthly benefits loaded onto an EBT card that recipients use at grocery stores. Amounts come from the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan. For fiscal year 2026, the maximum monthly benefit is $994 for a four-person household and $298 for a single person.⁸

Eligibility hinges on income limits that vary by state. Florida sets the ceiling at 200 percent of the federal poverty level for most households.⁹ Texas caps monthly income for a family of four at $4,421.¹⁰ Most working-age adults must meet work requirements to keep benefits.

Even at the maximum, SNAP often does not stretch far enough. At the end of 2024, the maximum benefit failed to cover the cost of a modestly priced meal in 99 percent of U.S. counties, falling short by about $53 per month on average.¹¹ SNAP online purchasing is now available in all 50 states and D.C., though benefits cannot pay for delivery or service fees.¹²

WIC

WIC provides supplemental food packages, nutrition education, and healthcare referrals to low-income pregnant and postpartum women and children under five. A family qualifies with income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or by already receiving SNAP, Medicaid, or TANF. In fiscal year 2024, WIC served about 6.7 million people per month, including an estimated 41 percent of all infants born in the country.¹³

Reach still lags eligibility. In 2023, only 56.1 percent of eligible individuals were enrolled, and participation falls steeply as children age, from 82 percent of eligible infants to just 27 percent of eligible four-year-olds. In rural areas, only 24 percent of eligible residents participate versus 61 percent in metropolitan areas. Nearly half of WIC-eligible people already on SNAP or Medicaid are not enrolled in WIC, which suggests clinic visits and paperwork are acting as barriers.¹⁴

School Meals

The National School Lunch Program, created in 1946, is the second-largest nutrition assistance program after SNAP. In the 2023–2024 school year, nearly 29.4 million children received school lunch on a typical day, 21.1 million of them at free or reduced prices.¹⁵ The School Breakfast Program works on the same model. Summer EBT provides $120 per eligible child each summer for groceries, and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program funds produce in schools.¹⁶

The Community Eligibility Provision lets high-poverty schools and districts serve breakfast and lunch to all students at no charge. Forty-two states and D.C. saw school meal participation increase in the 2023–2024 school year, driven partly by CEP adoption and state universal-meal laws.¹⁵

TEFAP and Food Banks

The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) moves USDA-purchased food from American farms to food banks. More than 20 percent of all food distributed through the Feeding America network comes from TEFAP, and the network provided over one billion meals with TEFAP food in the most recent fiscal year.¹⁷

Programs for Seniors and Native Communities

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program provides monthly food packages to low-income people aged 60 and older. The Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations delivers monthly packages to low-income Indigenous Americans on or near reservations; households cannot participate in both FDPIR and SNAP at the same time.¹⁶

What the 2025 Law Changed

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reshaped SNAP in three important ways: it broadened work requirements, shifted costs to states, and locked benefit levels in place. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cuts at nearly $187 billion through 2034.¹

Expanded Work Requirements

Time-limited work requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents previously applied up to age 50, later 54. The OBBBA raised that ceiling to 64, with exemption only in the month a person turns 65.¹⁸ It also added new groups now subject to the rules: parents of children aged 14 and up, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults aging out of foster care.¹⁹ Affected people must work or take part in approved training at least 80 hours a month, or they are limited to three months of benefits in a three-year window.²⁰ Pregnant individuals, people with disabilities, and households with a child aged 13 or younger remain exempt. The law also restricts eligibility for certain non-citizen residents who previously qualified.

New Costs for States

Starting in October 2026, the federal share of SNAP administrative costs drops from 50 percent to 25 percent, roughly doubling what states pay to run the program. The CBO estimates that shift alone reduces federal administrative funding by nearly $25 billion through 2034.²¹ In October 2027, states with SNAP payment error rates above 6 percent must start paying a share of actual benefit costs, from 5 percent for error rates between 6 and 8 percent up to 15 percent for rates of 10 percent or higher.²²

Only eight states had error rates below 6 percent in 2024: Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.²³ Twenty-seven states face a projected cost shift above $100 million a year, and total collective state SNAP costs could reach $15 billion annually once the provisions fully phase in. The structure creates an incentive for states to tighten paperwork to lower error rates, which can push eligible people off the rolls. Arizona reported a 25 percent caseload decline between July and November 2025, attributed in part to tightened verification.²¹

Benefits Frozen in Place

The law requires all future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan to be “cost neutral,” which blocks the USDA from raising benefit purchasing power based on new dietary science or food prices. A 2021 reevaluation, the first since 1975, had raised benefits by 21 percent and was credited with keeping 2.9 million people out of poverty. Increases of that size are now barred by statute.¹¹

Enrollment Losses Already Underway

Between July 2025 and January 2026, SNAP participation fell by more than 3 million people, an 8 percent drop, with losses in every state. Arizona’s rolls dropped 42 percent; Virginia and Tennessee each fell about 12 percent.¹ By February 2026, at least 3.5 million people had lost access to benefits.¹⁹

New Purchase Restrictions

Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, the USDA has granted waivers letting states ban SNAP use for candy and sweetened beverages. In 2026, 22 states are implementing such restrictions.²⁴ Texas, effective April 1, 2026, prohibits SNAP purchases of candy, gum, and beverages with 5 grams or more of added sugar or any artificial sweetener.¹⁰ Supporters argue taxpayer benefits should not subsidize products tied to diabetes and obesity. Critics say the rules reduce recipient flexibility without addressing the underlying problem that healthy food is often more expensive and less available in low-income neighborhoods. The National Grocers Association estimates compliance costs for convenience stores could total $1 billion, and store owners report confusion about which items count without a comprehensive list.

Where You Live Shapes What You Can Buy

Even with benefits in hand, finding a place to spend them is not automatic. The USDA defines a food desert as a low-income census tract where a substantial share of residents live more than a mile from a supermarket in urban areas, or more than 10 miles in rural ones.²⁵ The agency’s Food Access Research Atlas maps these areas nationally.²⁶

Rural communities have watched independent grocers give way to supercenters and dollar stores over the past half-century. A 2020 University of Minnesota Extension survey found nearly half of rural grocers were concerned about closing within five years.²⁷ When a store closes, residents can end up relying on gas stations and convenience stores with limited, more expensive, less nutritious options. Transportation makes it worse: rural municipalities are significantly less likely to have public transit, and among those that do offer demand-responsive service, rural systems are less likely than urban ones to serve supermarkets and farmers markets.²⁸ At least 13 states now run programs to support independent grocers, often targeting food deserts.

What States Are Doing on Their Own

Universal Free School Meals

A growing number of states now guarantee free breakfast and lunch to all public school students regardless of income. California mandated it starting in the 2022–2023 school year, followed by Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, and New Mexico.²⁹ New York joined for the 2025–2026 school year, backed by $340 million in annual state funding.³⁰ Colorado’s Healthy School Meals for All program, approved by voters through Proposition FF in 2022, faced a funding question in 2025 when Governor Jared Polis signed legislation referring two ballot measures to voters on whether the state could keep revenue to sustain and expand the program.³¹

Cushioning the SNAP Changes

States are responding to the OBBBA with a mix of compliance and mitigation. Ohio and Rhode Island have moved on payment accuracy and error-rate reporting. California, Maine, New Hampshire, and Washington have pending bills to fund automation upgrades or create contingency funds for administrative shortfalls. Alabama, Georgia, New Hampshire, and New Jersey are pursuing tighter citizenship verification and data-sharing legislation.²⁰ On the charitable side, California has allocated $80 million and Massachusetts $4 million to support food banks directly.³²

Paying People to Buy Fruits and Vegetables

The USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) subsidizes the purchase of fruits and vegetables rather than restricting what people can buy. Between 2019 and 2024, GusNIP distributed more than $330 million across over 250 projects.³³ Its Produce Prescription Program lets healthcare providers write prescriptions for fresh fruits and vegetables for patients in food-insecure households.³⁴ The prescription component currently covers fresh produce only, a limit that researchers say creates barriers in rural areas and places with short growing seasons; a bipartisan Senate bill introduced in March 2025 would expand eligibility to include frozen produce.³⁵

Is There a Right to Food in the United States?

No. The United States does not recognize a legally enforceable right to food under domestic or international law. It has not ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the U.S. government has stated it does not accept the “right to food” as an enforceable obligation, even while supporting the goal of adequate food access for everyone.³⁶

Maine went further at the state level. In 2021, voters approved a constitutional amendment declaring that all individuals have “a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food,” including the right to grow, raise, and consume the food of their choosing. West Virginia and Washington have explored similar amendments. In 2022, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination urged the United States to “guarantee the right to adequate food” and adopt a rights-based national plan to end hunger.³⁷ The practical consequence is straightforward: the programs above exist at the discretion of Congress, and as the OBBBA has shown, a single piece of legislation can reshape or shrink them.

1
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. SNAP Tracker – People Are Losing Food Assistance
2
USDA Economic Research Service. Key Statistics and Graphics
3
Urban Institute. Food Insecurity Remained High in 2025 as Safety Net Cuts Loom
4
Feeding America. Map the Meal Gap – Overall Executive Summary
5
National Center for Biotechnology Information. Racial Disparities in Food Insecurity
6
Feeding America. Map the Meal Gap 2025 Report
7
Nutrition.gov. Food Assistance Programs
8
Food and Nutrition Administration. SNAP Cost of Living Adjustments
9
Florida Department of Children and Families. SNAP Eligibility
10
Texas Health and Human Services. SNAP Food Benefits
11
Urban Institute. Cuts to SNAP in One Big Beautiful Bill Act Would Widen Persistent Gap Between Benefits and Food Costs
12
USDA Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Online Purchasing
13
USDA Economic Research Service. WIC Program
14
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. WIC’s Critical Benefits Reach More of Those Eligible Than in Recent Years
15
Food Research and Action Center. National School Lunch Program
16
National Agricultural Law Center. Nutrition Programs Overview
17
Feeding America. The Emergency Food Assistance Program
18
Illinois Department of Human Services. ABAWD Policy Updates
19
CNBC. SNAP Food Stamps and the Big Beautiful Bill
20
National Conference of State Legislatures. How States Are Responding to New SNAP Requirements
21
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Congressional Delay of SNAP Cost Shift Urgently Needed
22
The Institute for College Access and Success. Reconciliation 2025 – SNAP and Medicaid
23
Pew Charitable Trusts. As SNAP Changes Shift Food Assistance Costs, States Face New Choices
24
PBS NewsHour. How New SNAP Restrictions on Sugary Foods and Drinks Are Affecting Texas Residents
25
USDA Economic Research Service. Mapping Food Deserts in the U.S.
26
USDA Economic Research Service. Food Access Research Atlas
27
farmdoc daily. State Initiatives to Support Grocery Stores and Address Food Insecurity
28
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Food Access and Transportation in U.S. Municipalities
29
Food Research and Action Center. School Meals State Legislation Chart
30
New York State School Boards Association. NYS Action on Free School Meals Coincides With Federal Pullbacks
31
Colorado House Democrats. Bill to Continue Healthy School Meals for All Program Becomes Law
32
Harvard Kennedy School. Understanding the SNAP Program and What Cuts Mean
33
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program
34
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. GusNIP Produce Prescription Program
35
National Center for Biotechnology Information. Expanding Produce Prescription Eligibility
36
U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva. U.S. Explanation of Vote on the Right to Food
37
University of Miami School of Law. Smart Takes – Right to Food