A Palm Beach County nonprofit that distributes food to the needy is warning that proposed budget cuts by Congress to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could hurt scores of vulnerable groups like veterans, seniors, and children.
SNAP is the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative — some 42 million Americans or roughly one out of every eight people in the country, receive SNAP benefits. And South Florida may be among the areas hit hardest by the cuts.
Boca Helping Hands, which serves 35,000 people a year with food, job training, and financial assistance, was already feeling the pressure from earlier federal budget cuts amid a big drop in food donations.
Executive Director Andrew Hagen told WLRN that food donations are already down 40% compared to last year. “That’s a $1.1 million shortfall. And if we don’t have it, we can’t give it out,” he said.
The nonprofit is bracing for the worst. Earlier this year, key federal programs that helped food banks purchase fresh produce from local farms were eliminated.
The programs had worked with local farms and food depositories, a consistent pipeline that was distributed to food groups like Boca Helping Hands.
READ MORE: 'A lot of people will go hungrier': South Florida food charities brace for cuts on Trump bill
But “now farmers have excess product they expected to sell, and that's just rotting,” Hagen said. “We are not getting it.”
In March, as part of the Trump administration’s push to reduce federal spending, the USDA canceled two major programs: the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement had provided over $1 billion annually for schools and food banks to buy from local farms, simultaneously supporting agriculture and addressing food insecurity.
In the meantime, Boca Helping Hands and other non-profits that distribute food to those in need are trying to absorb the impact with fewer resources. Despite having the infrastructure, such as distribution centers, warehouses, and refrigerated trucks, Hagen said the nonprofit can’t meet the growing demand alone.
“It breaks our hearts that our food bags are getting lighter,” he said. “Last year, a family of four got about 45 pounds of food. That’s now dropped to 38 pounds — and it could go lower.”
In Washington, the proposed changes to SNAP — previously known as food stamps — would make states, including Florida, pick up more of the costs, require several million more recipients to work or lose their benefits, and potentially reduce the amount of food aid people receive in the future.
The legislation, part of Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill Act" that narrowly passed the U.S. House in May, could be changed in the U.S. Senate, where it's currently pending amid intense debate.
President Donald Trump wants lawmakers to send the bill to his desk by July 4, when the nation marks the 249th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump is pushing for big spending cuts to reduce the growing federal budget deficit and national debt, which has topped $36 trillion.
Democrats in Florida and across the country have denounced House Republicans support of the bill, arguing it would benefit the wealthy with tax breaks by taking public benefits away from low-income Americans.
U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Boca Raton, slammed the House Republican bill as a "GOP Tax Scam," saying it "takes food away from millions of Americans to give huge tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk."
“It’s cruel, reckless, morally indefensible, and balloons the national debt by more than $5 trillion. That’s why I voted no," she said in a May 22 statement.
SNAP cuts could heavily impact Hispanic-majority districts in Florida, especially in Miami, where over 20% of households in three GOP-held districts rely on the program, according to an analysis of Census data and SNAP recipients by POLITICO.
The state has just over 1.1 million Latino SNAP recipients, according to an state-by-state analysis by the nonprofit UnidosUS, a leading national Hispanic civil rights group.
And, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report, Latino households experience food insecurity at more than double the rate of white households — 22%, compared to 10% among white, non-Hispanic individuals.
The pressure underscores a political risk for Republicans.
Representatives from Hispanic-majority districts, including U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Miami, have expressed concerns over the proposed cuts.
Salazar told POLITICO. said she does not “want anyone taking advantage of the system forever … [but] you do help everyone because we are in the most benevolent and the most generous country in the world.”
Her congressional district includes Miami Beach and parts of Miami-Dade County.
For his part, Boca Helping Hands' Hagen said he is urging the public to help through food drives, school collections, and donations.
“The people making these budget decisions need to realize their own constituents are affected,” Hagen said.
“It may not look like a crisis today, but it’s growing. And we’ll all feel it if we don’t act," he said.
