Proposed Cuts to SNAP Bring Kaine, Vindman to Fredericksburg

Over two days, the legislators spoke with nonprofit leaders, government workers, and those whose very lives are threatened by proposed cuts to SNAP. In the discussions, a bipartisan plan that could wo

By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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From left to right, Eddie Oliver, Virginia Federation of Food Banks; Sen Tim Kaine, D-Va.; and Dan Maher, CEO of the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank tour the Fredericksburg food bank prior to a roundtable discussion on pending cuts to the SNAP program and how it would impact Virginians. Photo by Martin Davis

Donald Trump’s “Big, beautiful bill” looked far less attractive on Monday as the human cost of slashing a proposed $300 billion from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits was revealed not in numbers, but in human faces.

Juliette became disabled unexpectedly in her early 40s, following more than 20 years working as a nurse. She was at the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank to share her concerns and her story with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and others who had gathered to discuss the sweeping cuts being proposed to SNAP.

“I went over a year without food,” she said, before her pastor “realized what was going on” and took her to the church’s food pantry. Though greatly appreciative to simply have food, she found herself facing other problems. As a diabetic with a heart condition and an auto-immune condition, the shelf-stable foods that are put into many boxes at food pantries may benefit many but do not work for her. She requires fresh fruits and vegetables.

Her issues are compounded because she is on Medicaid and unable to work. And while she’s been identified as medically and physically disabled, she was denied Social Security Disability.

“With Trump threatening … if you’re not on disability,” she said, and don’t work “they’re going to take away Medicaid, I don’t [what I would do] without Medicaid[. I wouldn’t] have access to my diabetes medications.”

Juliette’s story resonated with other participants at the roundtable. “Juliette’s raising a good point,” Kaine said. “These programs are connected one to another.” And contrary to popular belief, the idea that Medicaid is mostly consumed by working-aged adults capable of working is not accurate. In fact, kids make up nearly 40% of Medicaid recipients.

Juliette’s story also brought into focus how lean SNAP benefits are for those who depend upon them. “Most of my food comes from food banks,” she said. Her SNAP benefits amount to only $4.79 a day.

The faces changed during the discussions on Monday, but the storylines were remarkably consistent. Disabled adults hanging by a thread and getting by on SNAP benefits that aren’t sufficient to meet their dietary needs, forcing them to rely on food banks for the bulk of their foods.

Pull One Thread …

Though the proposed reductions in SNAP benefits were to be the focus of Monday’s discussion, the ripple effects of reducing SNAP drew a great deal of attention throughout the day.

“In terms of SNAP,” said Dan Maher, CEO of the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank, “when you pull at [it], you’re pulling at … a fabric that has threads. If you’re not careful and you pull a thread inadvertently, you’ve unraveled something more significant.”

That’s because, Maher continued, SNAP is “food access for people, but it’s also an economic opportunity for not only them, but for other community members, because SNAP drives so much commercial activity to the retail environment.”

Just as pulling one thread — SNAP — can have far-reaching implications, the current battle over SNAP in the Senate is just the start of a greater budgetary battle in the year ahead. As Sen. Kaine explained, the Senate will certainly introduce amendments to restore SNAP funding. And this process will play out pretty quickly.

“The bigger picture,” he continued, “is over the federal appropriations bill. President Trump has sent us recently his proposed budget for FY26 … and proposes significant cuts to SNAP … and to other FDA related programs.”

And then there is the Farm Bill, which includes numerous anti-hunger programs, regional food banks, and others.

The complexity of the reality now facing organizations like local food banks, who are seeing unintended consequences of projected cuts to SNAP, is playing out at the same time that legislators defending anti-hunger programs are fighting a three-front battle in the U.S. Congress — the current House Bill before the Senate, the 2026 proposed budget from Trump that proposes more cuts, and the debate over the Farm Bill which still needs to be approved and could also potentially face significant cuts.

Ending SNAP Could Break America’s Food Security Safety Net

Budget battles over social safety net programs are hardly new. But this battle, from the perspective of food banks, is playing out against an unprecedented background.

“We have never seen record demand that we’re seeing right now for emergency food assistance at the same time as record low unemployment,” Eddie Oliver, executive director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks told the Advance. “The vast majority of people who can work are working right now. And we are still seeing tremendous amounts of need.”

Translated, the combination of high housing costs, high grocery costs, and rising expenses in other sectors of the economy mean that imposing work requirements in the name of ending fraud isn’t going to address the hunger problems the country currently faces.

Today’s unemployment numbers are near record lows. Source: U.S. Department of Labor

Now, if the SNAP cuts go through, the burden on food banks is going to grow to a level that makes it impossible for them to meet the need.

According to Oliver, the federal government will look to the states to backfill the $300 billion cut to SNAP. “The federal government in Congress is calling it a cost shift to states, and the estimates we’re looking at is Virginia would now be responsible for anywhere from between $350 million to $450 million per year.”

If the state couldn’t come up with that, then upwards of 200,000 Virginians would lose benefits. “We [the food banks],” Oliver said, “would have to essentially triple our output [to meet this loss]. That means three times the number of trucks, three times the number of warehouses. We distributed over 170 million pounds of food last year to over 700,000 people. To make up for the SNAP cuts, we’d have to triple that.”

And there is no pathway to make this happen.

What About Fraud?

During his first administration, Trump Administration argued that social safety net programs like SNAP are rife with fraud committed by people who are able-bodied but gain benefits.

At a roundtable on Saturday with Rep. Eugene Vindman, fraud was a significant piece of that conversation, but not fraud committed by people who are gaming the system. Rather, the discussion was focused on the criminal activity that is defrauding millions of their benefits.

There are a number of well-known schemes, including skimmers that capture SNAP card users’ data and then allow them to use that information to steal users’ funds. It’s a double tragedy because, as one government worker noted, once funds are stolen, they can’t be restored.

One participant who asked not to be identified told the Advance that in one locality the number of people who lose their funds because of skimmers, phishing tactics, or other methods is as high as 7% of recipients in a given month.

And just this past week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York broke up a scheme by a USDA employee to steal more than $66 million in SNAP benefits.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a press release: “Arlasa Davis, a USDA employee, is alleged to have abused her position and privileged access to confidential government databases to assist her co-conspirators in exploiting the SNAP program, driving tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions. This alleged scheme benefited the defendants while undermining critical safeguards designed to ensure that SNAP assistance reaches only eligible families in need.”

A Potential Bipartisan Way Forward

In the roundtables held both on Saturday and on Monday, the irony was not missed that at the same time that the Trump Administration is pushing for cuts that would prove decimating to those living with food insecurity, Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing the Make America Health Again agenda, stressing the need for fresh foods over processed foods.

“I think the Administration and the Make America Health Again agenda make a lot of good points about the role that diet plays in chronic disease,” Oliver told the Advance.

“The fundamental point they’re missing from all the communications I have seen is that healthier food is more expensive,” he continued, noting that families living paycheck to paycheck and who have tight budgets will purchase the most calories for the least amount of money they can. And this pushes them towards processed foods.

“And so,” he continued, “if we want to make America healthy again, we need to be investing in resources and nutrition programs, not cutting them.”

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