Thousands of Vermonters could lose access to nutritional benefits funded by the federal government in the coming years as a result of cuts laid out in the sweeping Republican-led spending package that President Donald Trump signed into law last month.
The reductions, along with many other measures in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are designed to fund parts of Trump’s domestic policy agenda, including an extension of tax breaks that estimates show will benefit wealthy people the most, as well as major increases in funding for border security and immigration enforcement, among other changes.
State officials and advocates emphasized in recent weeks that they haven’t yet tallied the full impacts the tax and spending package could have on Vermont. But a number of provisions, they said, will undoubtedly make it harder for people to access food using the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
About 65,000 people currently receive SNAP benefits — commonly known as food stamps — in Vermont, according to Ivy Enoch, policy director for Hunger Free Vermont, a nonprofit that advocates for ending systemic hunger in the state. Her organization estimates as many as 14,000 of them could see nutritional benefits they rely on reduced or eliminated entirely as a result of the legislation.
“This will make it harder for people to meet their most basic needs,” Enoch told VTDigger. “Fundamentally, it will cause harm to every one of our communities — and it is also forcing our state to contend with really difficult decisions.”
Vermont’s SNAP program is called 3SquaresVT. People are generally eligible for the program if their household income is equal to or below certain thresholds established by the federal government, or if they receive the state’s earned income tax credit. The vast majority of SNAP benefit recipients in Vermont are children, older adults and people with disabilities, Enoch said.
Currently, many SNAP recipients between the ages of 18 and 59 are required to report to the federal government that they are working, or participating in a work training program, in order to receive their benefits. But the new law expands that work reporting requirement to certain people up to 65 years of age.
There are certain exceptions to those reporting requirements, including for parents with teenage kids. Currently, parents of children under age 18 can be exempt from requirements to work, but under the new law, many parents will only be able to claim an exemption if they have kids under 14. People experiencing homelessness, veterans and young people who have aged out of foster care could also be subject to new work reporting requirements, Enoch said.
Proponents of the changes have argued they would ensure more people are working and that SNAP benefits are reserved for people with the greatest needs. But research has shown that existing requirements do not increase employment and have only pushed more people off of the safety net program.
Enoch said many SNAP recipients who can work, do work.
“This rule will be expanded to more people, who will need to take more time — that they don’t have — to fill out complex paperwork and submit it to the state,” she said. “And the state will then need to review more paperwork, creating more burden on both.”
Hunger Free Vermont estimates many people in the state will start to face the prospect of losing their SNAP benefits in February 2026, though the timeline is not entirely clear, Enoch said.
A more immediate impact, she said, will be felt by immigrant communities in the state. Starting Oct. 1, under the new law, refugees and asylum seekers — who have lawful status to live in the U.S. — will no longer be able to access SNAP benefits. Hunger Free Vermont believes about 1,600 people in Vermont will no longer be eligible for federal nutritional benefits because of that change.
The legislation also restricts future increases to the value of the nutrition plan the federal government uses to determine how much money many SNAP recipients should receive. Under the new law, the value of this “Thrifty Food Plan” will continue to reflect established cost-of-living increases. But barring future updates to the underlying value of the plan could mean SNAP payments lag over time, Enoch said.
Beyond the cost of food for individuals, the legislation is also expected to put new pressure on states, including Vermont, to pay for administering SNAP programs.
While the federal government pays the cost of SNAP benefits, it shares the cost of administering SNAP programs with individual state governments. Right now, that burden is shared 50-50. But it’s slated to change starting in October 2026, Enoch said, to a cost share that’s 75% on states and 25% on the feds.
The Vermont Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office reported last week that this change will cost Vermont $8 million a year starting in 2026. It’s one of many fiscal changes, prompted by Trump’s return to the White House, which state legislators will need to contend with when they return to Montpelier for the 2026 legislative session next January.
Other advocates have said a reduction in the number of people receiving SNAP benefits in Vermont could have broader impacts on the state’s food system.
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont runs a program called Crop Cash, which leverages federal funding to multiply the dollar value of SNAP benefits when recipients use them at local farmer’s markets. SNAP recipients spent more than $385,000 at markets across the state in 2024, according to the organization’s data.
The organization is not immediately concerned about funding for the program itself. But if fewer people are shopping at farmer’s markets because they cannot afford to without SNAP benefits, local farmers could lose out on income, which could be a potentially painful hit on already tight margins, said Jessica Hays Lucas, a policy organizer for the association.
“We’re just going to have so many fewer dollars in circulation,” she said, referring to SNAP benefits.
