Families, food pantries feel effects of new work rules for SNAP

By DANIELA RYNOTT

For one 39-year-old single mother in Mount Kisco, federal food assistance was the solution to an otherwise impossible math problem. 

Unable to afford childcare for her two young children, she’d relied on SNAP benefits to sustain her family as she stayed home to care for them.

However, under New York state’s newly enforced work requirements resulting from a change in federal policy signed into law a year ago, she is now required to work to keep her benefits, forcing her to leave her children alone at home. 

This mother’s predicament is just one story of many now unfolding in the region and across the state as the new work rules approved by Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill take effect. The far-reaching legislation spanned many areas of federal policy, from taxation and energy policy to defense and border control. 

For approximately 60,000 Westchester residents who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the most tangible and immediate impact has come in the form of narrowed eligibility requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents.

Jason Chervokas, communications director at the Westchester County Department of Social Services, estimates that about 3,000 individuals could be subject to the new work rules. He cautioned that it was difficult to calculate the exact number of benefit recipients who fall into that category since some who began receiving benefits during the pandemic may no longer qualify, while others who haven’t responded to outreach could still be eligible.

Supporters of the SNAP changes said they would reduce federal spending by $186 billion over the next decade, increase self-sufficiency among benefit recipients, reduce fraud and shift some program costs to the states. 

1 million left behind?

The impact of the new SNAP eligibility requirements reaches far beyond younger adults like the 39-year-old Mount Kisco mother. The measure also raises the age of able-bodied adults who must meet the new work rules in order to qualify for food assistance. That means many older adults who previously had no work obligation must now log at least 80 hours a month of work, training, or volunteering to keep their benefits. If they fail to log those hours over three months within a three-year period, they lose their benefits.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates the expanded work requirements will cause more than 1 million older adults ages 55 to 64 to lose their food assistance nationally.

Veterans and people experiencing homelessness, who were once automatically exempt from the work requirement, no longer are unless they can document a disability that prevents them from working. 

Caregivers have been affected as well: the exemption that once covered any parent with a child under 18 now only applies if the youngest child is under 14.

A separate change, set to take effect Oct. 1, will further narrow eligibility by legal status, limiting SNAP to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and cutting off refugees, asylum seekers and other legally present immigrants who had previously qualified.

BenefitsUSA reports that, since these stricter eligibility rules took effect, more than 4 million people nationwide have been affected, constituting a 10% decrease in SNAP’s caseload.

Chervokas described the case as a “moving target” because although the federal rules were signed into law in July 2025, New York didn’t require counties to actually begin enforcing the new work requirements until March 1 of this year.

Pressure on pantries

The demand from food banks and pantries serving Westchester families already has been steadily rising in recent years, according to officials, and that trend is only expected to accelerate in the face of reduced SNAP benefits.

In New York state’s 93rd Assembly District — encompassing Bedford, Harrison, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Pound Ridge, and part of White Plains — Feeding Westchester, a regional food bank, logged over 175,000 adult visits, 86,000 child visits and 55,000 senior visits between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, distributing approximately 2.5 million pounds of food, the equivalent of more than 2.1 million meals.

The organization first saw the strain in the weeks following the fall 2025 government shutdown, when it experienced a sharp uptick in visitors, many of whom had never needed a food pantry before but could no longer rely on their monthly SNAP benefits. 

Confusion over the new eligibility standards compounded the problem, pausing benefits for some recipients simply because they weren’t sure how to qualify under the changed rules, a confusion the organization says even its own staff have struggled to untangle.

State Assemblymember Chris Burdick, who represents the 93rd District, said the state has tried to help fill the deficit caused by the recent SNAP budget cuts, but noted that there is “no way we can fill the gap entirely.” 

“[Feeding Westchester] gets their funding through the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program of the state,” he said. “From the state, I can tell you that we have increased funding. To the extent that they’re getting funds through the federal government, that’s a different story,” he said. 

Distribution ahead of cuts

The Pantry, a weekly-choice pantry located in Mount Kisco, serves 21 communities throughout northern Westchester, covering the entire region apart from Ossining and Peekskill, which operate their own weekly-choice pantries. In anticipation of the SNAP cuts, Executive Director Trina Ward-Fontaine said The Pantry began preparing months in advance, increasing the amount of food distributed per person since January.

Roughly 90% of the pantry’s visitors come from Mount Kisco and Bedford Hills, the ZIP code with the highest number of SNAP recipients in northern Westchester besides Ossining and Peekskill.

At least twice a month, The Pantry helps its eligible visitors register for SNAP. However, Ward-Fontaine noted that a wide sense of fear in the face of the administration’s immigration crackdown has been holding back some needy recipients from registering.

Fears of ICE 

“There’s this sense that if people sign up for any government-funded program, that their names might be out there in terms of ICE potentially looking into who they are,” she said.

There has been a visible fallout from the new SNAP work requirements, Ward-Fontaine said, sharing the story of the single mother of two who now must work but can’t afford childcare for her children.

Poverty expected to rise

Looking ahead, Ward-Fontaine expects a continued gradual rise in pantry visits as a shrinking safety net pushes more families who have never previously needed help through the pantry’s doors.

“People … just can’t make ends meet anymore,” she said, pointing to an upcoming United Way report that is expected to show rising financial pressure on income-constrained employed households in the region and a growing share that are living paycheck to paycheck.

Rising food costs have also hit this section of the population particularly hard. A recent study said the cost of providing food to a family of four increased 33% between 2019 and 2025.

The community’s response to address rising food insecurity has been significant, food pantries report. When the fall federal government shutdown halted SNAP payments last November, The Pantry in Mount Kisco saw an outpouring of support in donations and service from its roughly 675 volunteers, Ward-Fontaine said. Still, she stressed  more help is needed to meet the rising demand for food assistance.

For Ward-Fontaine, what stands out most about the tighter SNAP eligibility rules isn’t the burden of compliance but the deeper implication behind them. 

“SNAP is not a very generous amount of money that is given to a family if you look at what a family needs for a food budget,” she said. “It is pretty shocking that it’s necessary to take people off the rolls.”