Albany, Georgia
KFF Health News
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Belinda Macroid is thinking about peanut butter.
The 64-year-old Macroid receives small monthly payments through the Federal Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as Food Stamps.
“They don’t give you much to work with,” she said. To fit her tight budget, she eats ramen noodles that are rich in sodium and less nutritious multiple times a week.
If she had more money, Macroid, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and heart problems, said she would buy more grapes, melon, chuck roast, ground turkey, cabbage and turnip greens. That’s what she did when lawmakers almost doubled the profits of her snaps during the pandemic.
But now, the GOP-led council has approved cuts in its food assistance program throughout 2034. Macroid, who worked in retail until her retirement in 2016, is unsure how she will be able to eat healthy foods if her profits drop again.
Macroid said the only hope for a healthy diet is to rely on peanut butter.
“I can get anything,” said Macroyd, who uses walkers who roam the senior community in southwestern Georgia. “I’m trying to eat a healthy diet, but I don’t have enough money to take care of it, so there are a few things I can’t do.”
The second Trump administration says healthy eating is a priority. It said “again, American health,” which cites poor diet as a cause of childhood illnesses and chronic illnesses. And states, including Arkansas, Idaho and Utah, are allowing federal snap benefits to restrict the purchase of unhealthy foods for the first time in the history of anti-hanger programs a century ago.
President Donald Trump also signed the Tax and Expense Act on July 4, shifting costs into states and expanding existing labor requirements makes it even more difficult for people to qualify for SNAP. The bill cuts around 20% of Snap’s budget, making it the deepest cut that the program faces. Currently, around 40 million people are receiving SNAP payments, while 3 million people have lost their nutritional supplements completely, and millions can reduce their profits.
Researchers say snap cuts counter efforts to help prevent chronic diseases through healthy foods.
“We’ve seen a lot of people who have had a lot of trouble with their health,” said Kate Bauer, an associate professor of nutrition science at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re interested in health, but for the rich,” she said.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, in 2023, around 47 million people lived in households with limited or uncertain access to food in 2023. Research from the institution shows that people living in food-affected households are more likely to develop hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The Trump administration retorts that cuts in funding would not hurt those receiving benefits.
“This is totally horrifying,” White House spokesman Anna Kelly said in an email. “The bill will enhance the snap of those who ultimately need it by implementing cost-sharing measures using state and common sense labor requirements.”
Macroids and other residents of Dougherty County, Georgia, where Albany is located, already face a sudden barrier to accessing healthy foods.
More than a third of residents receive snap benefits in the majority of black counties in the countryside, which Web Du Bois described as “the heart of the black belt” and “a place of hope and pain that is mysteriously mixed together.”
Terrell said a healthier diet can alleviate many of the illnesses she sees in her community. In 2017, she replaced school bus seats with shelves with fruit, vegetables, meat and eggs, and took her mobile grocery store to senior communities, public housing developments and rural areas.
However, reducing food aid will devastate the area and retreat efforts to help residents boost their diet with fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods and tackle chronic illnesses, she said.
Terrell saw how recipients of snaps like Macroid ate healthy when food aid rose during the pandemic. They got eggs instead of canned sausages, instead of ramen noodles, and fresh meat and produce.
From 2020, SNAP recipients have received additional pandemic support, according to the Northwestern University Policy Research Institute. According to a survey published in Health Affairs in October, when these payments ended in 2023, more families struggled to buy enough food. In particular, non-Hispanic black families have been studied to have seen an increase in anxiety.
Regarding budget policies and priorities, Katie Berg, senior policy analyst for the Food Aid Team, said: Cut into snaps and say, “Place healthy foods out of reach of these families.”
The Trump administration said it is boosting healthy eating for low-income Americans by limiting what they can buy with the benefits of snaps. We have begun approval of state requests to limit the purchase of soda and candy with the benefits of snaps.
“I would like to thank the governors of Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Utah, Iowa and Nebraska. I would like to thank the bold leadership and unwavering commitment to bringing America healthy again.” “I am urging all governors across the country to submit snap exemptions to eliminate sweet drinks. Taxpayer dollars should never have bankroll products that promote the epidemic of chronic diseases.”
The state has called for such restrictions in the past, but never approved previous administrations, including the first Trump administration.
Research shows that programs that encourage people to buy healthy foods are more effective than regulating what they can buy. Such restrictions increase family stigma that is burdensome for retailers and are often difficult to implement, researchers say.
“People make incredibly tough choices to survive,” said Gina Platanino, deputy director of Snap at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group and former senior policy advisor to the Biden administration.
“It’s not about soda and candy,” she said. “It’s about access.”
Terrell said he doesn’t know how people will survive if the benefits of food are further organized.
“What do people think they’re going to do?” said Terrell, a grocery store with a better way to open a bustling community market in downtown Albany last year selling fresh juices, smoothies and wellness shots. “We’ll have you choose between food and bills.”
That applies to 22-year-old Stephen Harrison. Stephen Harrison, 22, along with his parents and younger brother, is supported by a monthly snap benefit. During the pandemic, he used extra support to buy strawberries and grapes, but now he’s a better way to buy oranges as much as possible.
Harrison, a student of the culinary arts at Albany Technical College, carefully states his family’s budget to buy meals like cornbread and collard greens and pork chops, but he says that if his profits are cut, the family will have to resort to cheap food.
“I’ll buy a hot dog,” he said with a shrug.
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