Arida Gonzalez, who has stolen herself on the couch in her Cutler Bay Studio apartment, said she’s been trying to relax recently. But she continues, living in a daily state of “counting pennies” especially at grocery stores. And even with the help of about $100 you receive monthly from the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as Food Stamps.
The 79-year-old is one of nearly 3 million Floridians who benefited from SNAP, a government program launched in 1939, and has since become a major source of food aid for low-income Americans.
That may change soon. As part of one big beautiful bill law, House Republicans voted last week to cut nearly $300 billion in federal SNAP funds over the next decade by paying a portion of the program’s costs and expanding work requirements to older recipients and some parents.
Supporters, including Republicans like South Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, receive snap money for 17% of households in the 27 districts, but have celebrated the tax cut raft and ended “abuse of the federal program.” Salazar did not respond to requests for comment.
Supporters hope that if the Senate approves these changes and President Donald Trump signs the law, supporters hope that it will occur as early as July 4th, but if state lawmakers choose to maintain benefits for current SNAP users (about 13% of the state’s population), Florida will be hooked at a $1.6 billion cost.
Otherwise, many Floridians could lose food aid money when high costs are already stretching many families, pushing thousands into starvation, hurting local economies and reducing community safety, critics say.
Who uses snaps?
Florida’s 2.9 million SNAP winners pulled $6.4 billion from the federal funding program in their latest fully reported 2023. This averages $184 per snap user per month.
Children and seniors account for 38% and 24% of Florida snap recipients, respectively. More than half of all Florida households receiving snap benefits include people with disabilities.
In Miami-Dade, nearly a quarter of all households rely on snaps to pay their grocery bills, the fifth-highest rate in Florida’s county. In the county, 10 households receiving food stamps have children, while 6 in 10 people are over 60 years old.
Gonzalez is in the latter category. A single retiree, she lives with her dog in a subsidized senior home and receives a $940 Social Security check each month.
“I couldn’t live,” she said without food assistance.
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Her neighbor, Rigoberto Zarza, agrees. He stopped buying meat years ago. The $100 he gets in food stamps every month keeps food at his table.
Zarza, 86, a solid Republican and three Trump voter, is opposed to cutting snaps. He believes that “they can be bad” for him and his retirement community. Many live in financial margins with a thin amount of fixed income and sartorials.
The two Cutler Bay residents are not alone in their economic instability.
The region’s largest food bank, South Florida, estimates that 400,000 people in Miami-Dade (nearly 15% of the population) are food insecurity. This means you don’t know where your next meal will come from. According to the organization, Miami-Dade’s food insecurity rate has increased by 50% from 2019 levels.
Jared Nordland, political director for Latino advocacy group, Unidosas, said the benefits of food stamps could push those people to the brink, and the ripple effects could harm the local economy. If people can afford food, they spend less. It could affect farmers who may have little demand for their crops, he added.
And if many residents suddenly struggle to meet their basic needs, the community can feel more vulnerable or unsafe. “Individuals do what is necessary to support their families,” Sen. Shevlin Jones retorted. “It turns into a criminal justice issue.”
Jones, a Democrat at Miami Garden, is pessimistic about the Florida Congress’ willingness to fill the snap fund hole left behind by the federal government.
“I don’t believe in Florida that it’s authentic about the way people take care of,” he said.
Countries that pay, seniors work
The federal government has historically funded the entire food stamp programme during the depression era. no longer. Coming in 2028, if the state’s bill becomes law, the state will need to fund at least 5% of its SNAP budget.
However, states like Florida, which have a history of miscalculating participants’ monthly profits, must fund up to a quarter of their snap allocation. In the current system, the state determines who will be eligible for the food stamp and how much each participant will receive. The federal government then provides the full amount of the money.
Noting that she hopes to expand Florida’s recent federal food assistance program, Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat who represents parts of Miami-Dade, stressed that she cannot expect the state government to win snap costs. And she said that Florida is already projected to run a $10 billion deficit over the next three years, so if we explore ways to cut taxes further, it’s unlikely that the state will fundamentally increase food aid spending.
To reduce costs, there is a possibility that certain qualifications are now more accessible to SNAPs, which are more accessible to more Floridians, says Salaam Bhatti, Snap Director at Food Research and Action Center, a DC-based nonprofit that supports prevention policies. Florida has both higher costs and wages than most of the US, allowing Floridians to earn more than the federal income threshold and still qualify for food stamps.
The federal revenue limit is $41,795 for four households. In Florida, a family of four can earn up to $64,300 and still qualifies. Tallahassee could adopt a lower federal cutoff to reduce costs, Batty said.
Alternatively, states that do not want to pay SNAP may leave the program entirely, the Congressional Budget Office wrote.
The House bill also increases the work requirements for SNAP recipients. Previously, those over 54 were not required to work to qualify for SNAP. No recipients had children under the age of 18. Currently, all healthy individuals between the ages of 18 and 64 must work 80 hours a month to receive benefits, except for parents with children under the age of 7.
This can be a problem for recipients in their 50s and 60s. “It’s much harder to find a job within three months,” Bhatti said when referring to the recipient of the window snap, he needs to secure employment before losing benefits. And, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, reports requests with work requirements often can lead to recipients losing profits.
The initially proposed cuts to exclude US citizens and non-green cardholders, but South Florida representatives sought sculptures for many Cuban immigrants who lack permanent legal status. Under the bill passed last week, Cuban citizens in the US who lack permanent residency but who come through family sponsorship or through parole status are eligible for food stamps.
Such exceptions “reflect political convenience” rather than impartial policy decisions, Nordland said.
“If snaps are an important resource for Miami-Dade’s Cuban families, why isn’t it an important resource for all other hardworking families in Florida?” he wondered.
The story was created with financial support from supporters such as the Green Family Foundation Trust and Ken O’Keefe, in collaboration with Journalism’s fundraising partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editing control of this work.
