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Buy-Rite Foods is the kind of place shoppers can pick up a little bit of everything, from flour to toothpaste, in the small town of Pond Creek in central Oklahoma.
“There's a lot of regulars that we know exactly what they want when they walk in the door,” said Chrystal Hamblin, who runs the store’s register. “And I think this store depends on things like that, and so does this town.”
This is the only place in town where people can use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to buy food.
Hamblin said accepting SNAP means people don’t have to drive as far for groceries, and it’s important for the store’s bottom line.
But recently, the store’s owners have seen about a 90% drop in SNAP sales, especially since Oklahoma enacted restrictions on what people can purchase with their benefits.
“I don’t see near as many. I mean, it used to be after school, parents would just send their SNAP card with their kid, ‘Hey, go get your snacks or whatever you need after school,’” Hamblin said. “And a lot of that can't be used on SNAP now and so we don't see that.”
Since President Donald Trump took office again, the administration and Congress have made sweeping changes to SNAP that affect nearly every aspect of the program.
Federal officials say the measures will help cut waste and fraud or make the program healthier. But food and hunger experts say the changes could result in fewer people being able to afford groceries.
That’s especially a concern in rural areas, where SNAP participation is higher than in cities, according to the Food Research and Action Center. Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director for the advocacy group, said rural places also often have higher poverty rates, fewer job opportunities and less transportation options.
“We're highly concerned,” Plato-Nino said.
SNAP policy whiplash
Large structural and programmatic changes to SNAP were set in motion when Congress passed the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or H.R. 1, last July.
The bill expanded work requirements for participants, scrapped the SNAP Education program, cut off eligibility for certain legal immigrants such as sex-trafficking survivors and refugees, and shifted hundreds of millions of dollars in administrative costs to states.
On top of that, the Trump administration approved waivers for states to exclude certain junk foods from SNAP purchases – including in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Missouri and North Dakota. Proponents of restrictions say they are to encourage healthy habits but experts say there is little research backing up their efficacy, and they could make the program more complicated.
In a lawsuit, a federal judge has blocked restrictions in other states, such as Nebraska and Iowa, saying the USDA failed to follow the required process for making those changes.
There are also new rules set to take effect this month that require stores to stock more fresh foods in order to keep accepting benefits. Experts say the change will leave SNAP shoppers, especially in rural areas, with fewer options.
Since July 2025, about 5.4 million people have fallen off the program.
It’s unlikely reduced need is the reason behind declining enrollment, according to the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Plata-Nino, with the Food Research and Action Center, said the months of policy twists and turns — including executive orders and the program's rule changes — have helped lead to a decline in enrollment.
“H.R. 1 was just the thing that like — it's the main piece of the pie, but all of these other things are also impacting them. So it's not just one thing, it's everything,” Plata-Nino said. “But H.R. 1 is the biggest driver.”
Rural food insecurity above the national average
Nearly 16% of rural households were food insecure in 2024, 2 percentage points higher than the national average. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Household Food Security Report, which the Trump administration canceled last year. Researchers found food insecurity in rural areas is also nearly on par with the country’s largest cities.
James Ziliak, director of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Poverty Research, said dropping SNAP enrollment is likely to have a big impact in rural areas, where incomes tend to be lower. Americans in remote areas also face distinct challenges, he said, including fewer available jobs and longer distances to the grocery store.
“Many of those folks are going to be affected by these changes in the program,” Ziliak said. “And they already face a number of significant challenges to making ends meet.”
SNAP is the largest food assistance program in the country, and Ziliak said it is one of the most effective programs in the social safety net.
He said evidence shows SNAP reduces food insecurity, helps lift people out of poverty and has positive effects on health outcomes.
Ziliak said there’s been negative rhetoric from Congress focusing on the challenges that all programs face. Instead of addressing issues, he said people on the program end up vilified. For him, that’s not a productive approach.
“I think we should be proud of how effective the program’s been, but also vigilant and always trying to improve,” Ziliak said. “And it's just not so clear that the goal of the Congress with H.R. 1 was to improve the program, so much as it is to punish those who are on the program.”
Ziliak said losing SNAP dollars could especially hurt small grocery stores with thin margins. It is estimated for every program dollar used, more than $1.50 is generated.
“If you cut both enrollment in the program, as well as the benefits, then that's going to be less money spent in the local community, which could have a spillover effect on the local grocery sector,” he said.
‘As long as I have SNAP, I have food.’
There are just a few convenience stores that offer SNAP in Cache, Oklahoma, a town of about 3,000 people in southwestern part of the state.
Savannah Huling has relied on the benefits to feed her and her 7-year-old son and goes to a local food bank to fill in gaps. She said food prices have also been high for a while.
But she knows not everyone in her community understands food insecurity.
“There's really not as big of an awareness as you'd want because it's like the battle of the stereotypes,” Huling said. “Some people are thinking, ‘Oh, if you just get up and get a job…’ but then you got the people who actually know.”
And experts worry food insecurity could get worse because of another change coming to SNAP.
Beginning as early as 2027, many states may become responsible for millions of dollars of SNAP program costs.
How much states will have to pay for the benefits will depend on their SNAP error rate – which includes both overpayments and underpayments made to recipients. As of fiscal year 2025 figures, 37 states will owe something.
Brian Colby, vice president of the Missouri Budget Project, said Missouri currently has to pay at least $50 million in administrative costs. If the error rate remains above 8% this fiscal year, costs may rise to $150 million.
“If you add a further responsibility to the state for the SNAP program it's going to be exceedingly painful to deal with,” Colby said, “because Missouri just doesn't have $150 million sitting around unappropriated or unspent.”
With a tight state budget, Colby said it will make it hard for the state to administer SNAP and for people to participate.
“They'll simply opt out or lose benefits because of paperwork, errors, or other types of programming,” he said. “That is really exacerbated by having to react so quickly to the changes at the federal level, much quicker than had been in the past.”
There is concern that some states could cut SNAP altogether because of the higher cost, leaving millions of people unable to afford groceries.
For now, Savannah Huling is hopeful.
She’s starting a new job and is optimistic she’ll qualify for SNAP. Huling knows her wages won’t be enough to cover all her costs.
“I'm going to get this job, work my hours, hopefully get SNAP and have groceries and keep going,” Huling said. “As long as I pay my bills, I have a house. As long as I have SNAP, I have food.”
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
