Episode Details

More than 4 million people have dropped out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the past year — an unprecedented drop that hasn’t gotten much attention in the media.

As SNAP Director at the Food Research and Action Center, Gina Plata-Nino is tracking all of this very closely. FRAC fought hard against the $187 billion in SNAP cuts Congress passed through reconciliation last July. That legislation made it much harder (and in some cases impossible) for certain individuals to access SNAP and left states staring down billions in new costs they weren't expecting to carry. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has stopped measuring food insecurity rates. New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicates hunger levels are higher today than at the peak of the pandemic.

Gina came to this work from the ground up — through legal aid in Massachusetts, representing clients who couldn't navigate a benefits system so complex it sometimes requires a lawyer to navigate it. She ultimately landed as a senior advisor in the Biden White House where she helped build the national strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health. Now she's at FRAC, fighting to protect access to SNAP, a program that helps feed nearly 37 million people.

Highlights:

– Who uses SNAP, and what the program's average recipient earns per month

– The reconciliation law passed last July (the biggest cuts to SNAP in history) and how states are scrambling to prepare

– Why Arizona's SNAP participation has dropped nearly 50%

– Why some states may stop running SNAP entirely

– What the FNS relocation to regional hubs — now renamed the Food and Nutrition Administration — means for the 16 nutrition programs that serve one in four Americans

– SNAP restrictions: how half the states now have waivers to ban certain products, and why FRAC believes the evaluations are inadequate

– New York Fed data showing hunger now exceeds pandemic-era levels, and why USDA's decision to stop measuring food insecurity makes this even more alarming

Where to find Gina Plata-Nino:

On LinkedIn

FRAC.org

Gina's work at FRAC

Mentioned in this episode:

FRAC statement opposing FNS/FNA relocation

New York Fed: More people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic (NPR)

FRAC: Shifting the Burden — How Reconciliation Reshapes SNAP and Strains State Budgets

FRAC: Food security supplement and why it is needed

FRAC: Backgrounder on quality control and payment error rates

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