5 people on SNAP share what the food program gets right — and wrong

Yahoo

08-07-2025

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, helps one in eight Americans put food on the table, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). SNAP is a lifeline for many individuals, families and people with disabilities.
More than 62% of SNAP recipients are part of families with children. In 2022, 20% of children under 18 nationwide were in families receiving SNAP benefits. More than 38% of SNAP recipients are from working families. And more than 37% of families receiving SNAP include someone who is disabled or elderly, according to the CBPP.
'Without SNAP, families miss meals. Kids show up to school hungry. Parents skip groceries to keep the lights on. We're not talking about convenience. We're talking about survival,' Erica Williams, executive director of the nonprofit A Red Circle and co-author of the peer-reviewed food policy brief Food Pricing and Consumer Choice, tells Yahoo. SNAP is crucial because 'it's the most direct tool we have to reduce hunger,' she says. Most of the families Williams works with tell her that they don't want to be on SNAP forever but need help while they 'get stable,' she points out.
SNAP can be used to buy a variety of foods, including dairy products, meat, poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables and snack foods. However, the program has limitations. 'You can't buy hot food or household goods like soap and diapers,' Williams says. 'You also can't buy prepared meals, which means parents working two jobs can't just grab something healthy on the go. It reinforces exhaustion.'
Although SNAP helps many people get by when they don't earn enough to buy groceries, it often isn't enough. Rising food costs and eligibility restrictions make it challenging for many SNAP recipients to meet their needs. Yahoo talked to five people about what being on SNAP is really like.
Danielle, a single mother in Missouri, works full-time in administrative support. She started receiving SNAP benefits when her son Marcus, now 20, was a baby, and his father stopped paying child support.
Today, Danielle works 40 hours a week and still receives SNAP benefits. Marcus, who is neurodivergent, lives at home while he takes classes at a community college and works about 15 hours a week. Yet, despite having two working adults in the house, Danielle and Marcus don't earn enough to feed themselves adequately.
Danielle's SNAP benefits help, but they are still struggling. Marcus stopped receiving benefits when he turned 18 because he was in school full-time and wasn't working enough hours to qualify for SNAP. Now, Danielle has to feed herself and her son with SNAP benefits meant for one adult. 'I understand the rules,' Danielle tells Yahoo. However, she emphasizes that she's unwilling to let her son go hungry or drop out of school and have a chance at a more financially stable life. 'That means I skip meals so he doesn't have to,' she says.
Danielle usually buys foods like dry pasta, rice and canned vegetables to stretch her grocery budget. Eggs are a rare luxury, and she relies on a nonprofit food bank for fresh produce. Most of Danielle and Marcus's diet is 'Heavy. Salty,' Marcus says. 'You feel full, then you crash. I get foggy. Slow. Food's supposed to be medicine,' Marcus tells Yahoo. However, his limited diet often makes him feel worse. 'We're both trying. But we're still hungry,' Danielle says.
Danielle wants people to know that 'this isn't about laziness. It's not about people gaming the system. It's about working families, caregiving parents, students trying to get out and still falling short.'
Like Danielle, Jessica is also a single mother living in Missouri. She's been on and off SNAP since 2012. She typically buys items like flour, cereal, cheese and salmon with her SNAP benefits. Occasionally, she buys fresh fruit and vegetables and treats like ice cream or chicken nuggets for her son. However, due to the higher cost of fruit and vegetables, Jessica often finds that her benefits aren't enough to support a healthy diet. To fill the gap, Jessica relies on nonprofits like A Red Circle. 'The biggest challenge of being on SNAP is finding affordable quality food,' Jessica tells Yahoo.
Even though Jessica would like to feed her son a healthy diet, she laments that her SNAP benefits are often just enough to cover 'pantry fillers.' Another challenge to staying healthy on SNAP is that "you can't buy vitamins, medicine or supplements,' she says. That makes it harder to stay healthy in the long run, she explains.
Nevertheless, SNAP is a lifeline for Jessica. 'Without SNAP, feeding my family would be incredibly hard. With the cost of living so high and wages so low, it would be a serious struggle,' she explains. 'SNAP is not charity. It's a stabilizing force,' she says.
Megan, who lives alone and has chronic Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, worked as a public servant in New York for 24 years. For her entire career, she helped others in need, including people struggling with mental illness and families whose loved ones were placed in child or adult protective services.
Although Megan wanted to continue working, her health worsened, and she had to leave her job. Once Megan's savings ran out, she relied on local food pantries for food. When that wasn't enough, she applied for SNAP.
Megan still visits food pantries. However, she uses her SNAP benefits to 'round out meals from the ingredients the food pantry provides,' she says. Since Megan usually gets canned and boxed goods from the food pantry, she usually uses her SNAP benefits to buy meat and produce. However, she notes that because of the high price of fresh fruit, produce 'feels like a luxury.' Moreover, although Megan tries to cook everything from scratch to save money, she keeps one or two pre-prepared meals on hand to eat when her illness flares and she's too fatigued to cook.
'I literally wouldn't be surviving without SNAP,' Megan tells Yahoo. 'Having SNAP has given me some peace of mind regarding access to food.' However, Megan is concerned because SNAP benefits don't automatically increase when grocery prices go up. Due to rising grocery prices, 'the SNAP benefits don't stretch as far in covering what's needed for a month,' she says.
Megan is doing what she can to help with her recovery, but doesn't know when or if she will be able to return to work. 'Every fiber of me just wants to have my prior level of functioning back,' she says. 'I loved the work that I did. I loved my clients.'
She adds: 'I'm hopeful that I will medically improve enough to be able to return to work and discontinue SNAP, but it will realistically be a few years, at best.' Until then, 'SNAP is a lifeline for me,' Megan says.
Ryan Wilson, a disabled videographer from Colorado, was on SNAP for seven years. Like many people with disabilities, he had a hard time finding a job that paid him a living wage. 'The job market was and is tough,' Wilson tells Yahoo.
When he wasn't earning enough to cover his basic expenses, SNAP helped him get by. He told Yahoo that without SNAP, 'I would have had a hard time paying for my essentials' like food and medical care.
However, Wilson emphasizes that SNAP helped him survive but not thrive. When he was on SNAP, he couldn't use his benefits to buy necessities other than food. Additionally, he could only use his benefits at select locations like big box stores, even though smaller grocery stores were often closer. 'That is an inconvenience, especially for someone with a disability that impacts their mobility,' Wilson says.
Now Wilson runs a video production company called Team Trust Productions. His income has increased, and he no longer needs SNAP to ensure he can access enough food. Wilson is grateful he received SNAP when he needed it, but he never expected to receive SNAP benefits forever. 'It's a temporary option. It does not have to be a permanent solution to financial uncertainty,' he says.
Although Laura, a single woman from Pennsylvania, worked full-time, her income wasn't enough to support herself. For three years, Laura received SNAP benefits to help her get by. Eventually, she started earning a higher salary and no longer needed SNAP to buy food. However, in early 2025, Laura lost her job. Once her unemployment benefits ran out, she started receiving SNAP benefits again.
Without SNAP, 'I would definitely not be eating three meals a day,' Laura tells Yahoo. She usually uses her SNAP benefits to buy frozen fruits and vegetables, chicken thighs and seasonal fruit and vegetables, which she finds more affordable than out-of-season produce. When she can afford it, Laura buys cheese and coffee. She also goes to her local food pantry to supplement her groceries. However, she emphasizes that food pantries are 'meant to be just that — supplemental, not a source of regular groceries.'
Laura is grateful for the SNAP benefits she receives, but thinks some aspects of the program need to be changed. 'I wish we could buy paper products,' she says. 'Toilet paper is just as necessary as apples, and I wish I could just get everything at once.' She also wishes that restrictions on what SNAP recipients can buy, such as candy and hot foods, would be removed. Plus, Laura finds it difficult to figure out which foods she can buy with her benefits and which are excluded.
'No one should be told what food they're allowed to buy. Food is a human right,' Laura says. 'By making laws that just blindly eliminate whole sections of foods, that just makes it harder on people with specific diets. Or, it makes it impossible to give a little kid a birthday party,' she explains.
Most importantly, Laura wishes she could rely on SNAP being around for those who need it. She's still looking for a full-time job that pays enough for her to support herself. Until then, however, "it's always in the back of my mind that my access to food could be taken away at any time. Depending on a program that's outside of your control, just to feed yourself, is terrifying,' she says.