Millions of people using the supplementary nutrition aid program (SNAP) are facing changes, not only what kind of food they can buy, but how much money they get, what they have to do to be eligible for the program, or if they are eligible for profit.

Trump administration allowed more states last week To prevent people from using benefits Sugars to buy food and drinks. And Budget reconciliation bill The program currently includes deep cuts. Some people say that they cannot imagine how they will feed themselves and their family if these new proposals are approved.

“It will start changing the calculation” How do I stretch it to meet my needs? ” A graduate college student in Oregon said, “How much should I eat to survive?” ,

Smith does not get family support and pays to college through a combination of loan and work – current SNAP rules require students to work 20 hours a week to get benefits. A study estimates About a quarter of graduate college students are food unsafe.

Smith says, “I would have had to make big changes without it, if not completely out of college,” Smith says.

Analysis from nonpartison Congressional Budget Office It tells that the cut will almost reduce snap $ 300 billion – The biggest cut in the history of the program. More than 40 million people in the US get food aid; Some food policy Experts warned that 4 in 4 may be affectedThey take precautions that many recipients will reduce their benefits to a large extent or completely eliminate their benefits. Some states – unable to create for federal cuts – can choose to leave the program completely.

“It is very difficult how devastating will be for low -income families” Katie Berg says, A policy analyst at the center on budget and policy priorities. “I think it’s a little swept under the radar Congressional Budget Office – Nonpartison of Congress, official scorer – has confirmed that some states can end their SNAP programs as a result of this provision. ,

Tea Church quit his job to take care of her children. She says that a proposed work requirement for parents with children above 7 years of age will be difficult for her family.

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For some, new work requirements may be malicious

The budget reconciliation bill passed by the House will implement new work requirements to qualify for Snap. In other changes, children will be parents of 7 years and older. It is necessary to work 20 hours a week To maintain eligibility.

“There is no way,” a single mother, who lives in the rural city of rural dles, ore, outside Portland about an hour outside Portland, says tea church. The church has five children at the age of 10 to 18 years. “If the requirement was 20 hours a week, it will negatively affect our family.”

One of the sons of the church, which he adopted after cradles, requires special care. “Crronologically she is 11,” says church. “Social and emotionally, he is more like 6.”

Under the current SNAP rules, some people qualify for exemption from existing work requirements if they are taking care of someone with disabilities; It is not clear that the family of the church will meet the requirements under the new rules.

She says that it is difficult to take care of the child for school and summer in her rural Oregon Town and would be almost impossible for a child with high needs.

Church says, “It’s not that I do not want to work or I am unable.” “Doing a regular job with a regular program is not an option for us.”

The current profit of her family is close to $ 450 per month, although it is growing to $ 125 in summer while her children are home from school. Snap She says, “There is a large part of the one who protects us every month.”

Soda and Candy in Restricted Food List

Another flashpoint in the rules of Trump administration around Snap: Chinese.

Last week, Agriculture Secretary Brook Rolins announced that three more states – Utah, Idaho and Arkansas – would be eligible for them that would allow them to ban the purchase of sugar -rich foods and beverages with snap benefits.

A press conference at a press conference stated that “the taxpayer is part of an effort to improve the US diet” funded to buy unhealthy items such as soda, candy and other junk food.

There are now such policies in six states; More than a dozen are chasing him, mainly under the leadership of Republican state MLAs.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior said he would expand the ban to include ultra-related food, although he admitted that it would take time to implement such a policy. Kennedy says that these changes are part of a major effort to reduce chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Kennedy said in the same press conference, “If someone wants to drink a soda pop, we have no problem with it, we believe that we have freedom of choice in this country.” “It is about nutrition and there is no nutrition in these products. We should not pay for them with taxpayer’s money.”

Critics – including food experts and SNAP recipients – say fighting is not as simple as a restricted food item list.

Recently on a shopping journey, T Church took many of its children with them. Her 11 -year -old son, Solomon, pointed to the back of a grain box and considered the balance of sugar and protein.

“Six grams and protein 9,” he said. “I think there should be more protein.”

Tea – who worked with a nutritionist and recently lost more than 100 pounds – says nutrition is important in their family, but also gives importance to the choice and ability to give timely treatment to their children.

“To be able to give them something that does not negatively affect our budget,” she says.

For her teenagers, soda and energy drinks capture a unique role. “This is a kind of social currency for her,” she says.

Her 17 -year -old daughter, Olivia, confirms this dynamic.

“I think when you walk in the first period in the morning, everyone has a red bull, an energy drink – it is a social construction,” says Olivia.

Some of her fellow come to school with Starbucks drinks, which costs around $ 7 – a luxury she cannot tolerate. But being a red bull, she says, makes her feel more normal.

“I will never be able to be a part of the social pyramid if we did not have Snap benefits that would pay for those people.”

Less options for people with low resources

Some food policy experts are stress Meaningful ways to encourage healthy foodBut proven strategies usually involve Expansion benefits Only instead of restricting them.

“We do not have quality data that says that if you restrict access to candy and soda in Snap, then you are going to reduce the quality of the diet, better nutrition, chronic disease,” Jole Johnson with Center for Science in the Public Interest. “That data does not exist.”

Came Johnson Successful pilot program It encourages people to buy more fruits and vegetables through extended access to these foods.

“Just because a person participates in SNAP, it does not mean that they are not worth the same food options that no one participates in SNAP,” Johnson says.

some research Suggestions to people Those who use snap drinks in the same amount of soda, which do not receive subsidy.

Standing in the parking lot of the grocery store after its shopping, the church says that it feels that the change of change by the administration does not take into account the original objective of the program.

“This is why these programs were created,” she says, “to be able to take care of our community members.”