USDA estimates its Nov. 10 proposal would end food assistance for 6.3 million people by 2029. The public has until Dec. 10 to weigh in.
By EEW Magazine Online Editors
A woman waits to receive donated food for a Thanksgiving meal. (Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Bridget Majka runs a food pantry and a soup kitchen in Dunkirk, New York, and this fall she watched the pantry shelves go nearly bare. The Chautauqua County Rural Ministry, where Majka is executive director, told its neighbors in a Facebook post that it was "facing a critical food shortage," the Post-Journal of Jamestown reported Nov. 2.
On one day during the surge, the ministry fed 40 families from its pantry, served 120 lunches and sent out 100 takeout dinners. Twenty of the people at lunch had never come before.
As pantries like hers work to keep up, a federal proposal could reach the families in their lines. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Nov. 10 proposed a rule that would narrow who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. By the department's own estimate, about 6.3 million people in 3.2 million households would lose benefits by fiscal year 2029, when the rule would reach its full effect. That is more than 17% of those now enrolled.
In Dunkirk, neighbors answered the ministry's post with donations, and the need kept growing. Majka told the newspaper that about 30% more people have turned to the ministry's food programs over the past year, an increase she did not see coming. Many of them, she said, pay the mortgage, the tax bill and the utilities first. Food is what gets cut.
In Chautauqua County, 15.7% of residents are food insecure, the Post-Journal reported, citing Feeding America.
The Chautauqua County Rural Ministry’s Emergency Food Pantry in Dunkirk, New York, is asking for donations as demand rises ahead of the holidays. (Photo: Braden Carmen/Post-Journal)
The rule targets a policy called broad-based categorical eligibility. It lets states enroll a household in SNAP once that household has qualified for certain services funded through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the federal welfare program. Most states, including New York, use it.
Under the proposal, only households receiving ongoing help with basic needs through that program, such as cash aid, would qualify automatically. Everyone else would have to meet SNAP's standard federal income and asset limits.
USDA says the change would direct benefits to the households with the greatest need and replace eligibility rules that now vary from state to state. The department projects nearly $45 billion in federal savings over five years. In the proposal, it called continuing benefits for households above federal limits "irresponsible to Congress and taxpayers," NBC New York reported.
The proposal reaches school cafeterias as well. Nearly 1.8 million children would lose automatic eligibility for free breakfast and lunch. USDA estimates that 97% of them would still qualify for free or reduced-price meals through a separate application.
A second rule proposed the same day would make it harder for areas with high unemployment to obtain waivers from SNAP work requirements, according to the National Association of Counties.
In Buffalo, Erie County Social Services Commissioner Karen Rybicki told Spectrum News that she opposes the eligibility change. Some families will drop off the rolls because they do not complete the extra interviews, she said, even though they remain eligible. Her department would also need more staff time to conduct them.
FeedMore WNY, the regional food bank for Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, assisted 170,000 people in 2025. That is 51% more than in 2021. Across the four counties, it recorded 4,600 more visits in July and August than in the same two months last year, the Post-Journal reported.
Chief Communications Officer Catherine Shick told Spectrum News that reductions in SNAP send more people to a charitable food network that is already overburdened. She told the Post-Journal that many families are one missed paycheck or one emergency away from needing help.
The proposal follows a year of changes to the program. A federal budget law passed in 2025 expanded work requirements and shifted more of the program's costs to states. SNAP participation in New York fell by nearly 273,000 people between July 2025 and July 2026, according to USDA data compiled by the Food Research & Action Center.
The proposal does not change anyone's SNAP eligibility yet. USDA is accepting public comments through Dec. 10. After that, the department will decide whether to finalize, revise or withdraw it.
Majka is preparing for Thanksgiving in the meantime. Her ministry served more than 200 families last year and expects to pass that number this month.
Empowering Everyday Women Ministries, the nonprofit that publishes EEW Magazine Online, is in the middle of its annual Thanksgiving Hunger Relief campaign. The campaign helps provide warm, nourishing meals for struggling families in Western New York. Nationally, the ministry supports food distribution networks through its partnerships with hunger relief organizations.
Boxes of donated food sit in a collection container. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Monica, a mother of two whose family received a Thanksgiving meal through the campaign last year, described what that dinner lifted from her. "For one day, I didn't have to choose between buying groceries and paying a bill," she said.
Jesus counted a meal given to someone hungry as a meal given to Him. Gifts to Thanksgiving Hunger Relief 2026 can be made on the campaign page. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. The ministry's GivingTuesday hunger campaign, "Hungry for Change," begins Dec. 1.
EEW Magazine Online is part of Empowering Everyday Women Ministries, Inc.
