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July 1, 2025 |  By: Mark Moran - Public News Service

The Big Beautiful Act may lead to food insecurity

Nebraska's food insecurity rate of 12.2% is a percentage point higher than the national average, according to an October 2023 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nebraska's food insecurity rate of 12.2% is a percentage point higher than the national average, according to an October 2023 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Adobe Stock)

Mark Moran - Public News Service

Pending Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit cuts could mean large reductions to services that provide meals to Nebraska's most vulnerable people.

Those reductions would also trickle down to the food banks that feed them.

Omaha-based Food Bank for the Heartland served more than 1.5 million meals to people in 93 counties in Nebraska and neighboring western Iowa last year, many of them considered food insecure.

Northeast Iowa Food Bank Executive Director Barbara Prather said the cuts will hurt rural service providers most, and trickle down to those in need of groceries if food banks shutter and medical care if hospitals are forced to close.

"We know in rural areas, that means job losses," said Prather. "That means traveling further to a grocery store. That means traveling further to the doctor's office, which leads into transportation."

The number of food-insecure people in Nebraska jumped to nearly 12% in 2022.

If SNAP cuts are passed and the costs are passed on to states that can ill-afford the increased spending, that number could rise.

At least 780,000 people nationwide could become food insecure if Congress passes SNAP funding reductions.

As part of the Trump administration's budget priorities, Washington lawmakers have said they are reducing social service fraud and waste.

Feeding America's Chief Government Relations Officer Vince Hall said the cuts are an overreach, and threaten people who need them most.

"Instead of addressing fraud in a thoughtful and effective way," said Hall, 'it's using fraud as an excuse to hurt people who are honest, hard working seniors, who are in their golden years, people with disabilities, active duty military. And it is harming all of those families."

The House-passed spending plan awaits action in the Senate, where proposed cuts are smaller, but could have a major impact on social services nonetheless.