State laws create disparities in access to government food benefits

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• Amna Nawaz:

  The program SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is one of the nation's largest welfare systems, helping to feed more than 40 million low-income Americans.

  But for people in need, what that assistance looks like and who can access it varies greatly.

  Laura Barron-Lopez and producer Maea Lenei Buhre have this report, the final part in our series America's Safety Net.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  For single mother Betsy Cruz, every trip to the grocery store is a tightrope walk.

• Betsy Cruz, Snap Recipient:

  I always have to calculate down to the penny, because when I get to that register, I don't need any surprises, because, if it comes over than the amount that I have, I have to ask them to put it back.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  That amount is usually $56 a month, the total benefit she and her 21-year-old son, Colton (ph), receive from SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

  Is it enough to support and cover your food costs?

• Betsy Cruz:

  No, it's not. You go to the grocery store and you come out with maybe three or four bags and that's it. That's it for the month.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  To bridge the gap, Cruz gets help from food banks like this one, near her home in Gilbert, South Carolina. She says she's grateful, but she can't rely on this help for healthy food.

• Betsy Cruz:

  Most of the stuff that you get at the food banks are like very high-carbureted or starchy items. And my son's a diabetic, but we have to use it. We have no choice.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  This struggle is new for Cruz. She worked a steady job as a government meat inspector for nearly three decades, but she was forced to retire early and take a reduced pension after her son's struggles with the developmental and behavioral disability worsened.

• Betsy Cruz:

  You know, it's not that I don't want to work. It's, I can't.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Yes, you have no choice right now.

• Betsy Cruz:

  I have no choice. I'm a mother first, and it's been 21 years of it. He has to come first.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  The Cruz family is not unique. About 90 percent of SNAP recipients live in households with older adults, children, or someone with a disability.

  To qualify for SNAP, a family of two in South Carolina must make less than $25,700 a year. In 2022, about 600,000 people, 12 percent of the state's population, were on SNAP. That reflects the national picture.

  Lyndon Johnson, Former President of the United States: We must distribute more food to the needy.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Food stamps started in 1964 as a key part of president Lyndon B. Johnson's war on poverty aimed at feeding low-income Americans.

  As the program expanded, rising sharply after economic downturns like the Great Recession and later the COVID-19 pandemic, it's become a target for conservative lawmakers, who argue the country can't afford a welfare program that costs more than $100 billion annually.

• Man:

  The bill is passed.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  In last year's debt-sealing agreement, Republicans in Washington negotiated a raise in the age limit for SNAP's work requirement from 49 to 54. And states too have experimented with more stringent SNAP requirements.

  For nearly a decade here in Kansas, Republican legislators have passed laws restricting who qualifies for food assistance, from implementing higher work requirements to forcing people to apply for child support.

  Kansas is one of five states that make single parents seek child support in order to receive SNAP benefits.

• State Rep. Francis Awerkamp (R-KS):

  I think it's an absolutely good policy.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Republican Representative Francis Awerkamp is the chair of the Kansas House Committee on Welfare Reform.

• State Rep. Francis Awerkamp:

  It's an opportunity to find that other parent and make sure they're doing their duty, so that that child and the custodial parent, typically the mother, has the resources they need to kind of have — run a stable life.

• CECILIA DOUGLASS, Kansas Resident:

  It seemed like a very drastic move just to feed my family.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  In 2017, six months into a pregnancy, Cecilia Douglass' partner unexpectedly abandoned her and her two daughters. The Kansan had just taken a pay cut to focus on her pregnancy, and she says her ex left her with crippling debt.

• CECILIA DOUGLASS:

  When I found myself single, there were a lot of financial responsibilities that were left on my shoulders, and it was very difficult to recover from that financially.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  After giving birth, she decided to apply for SNAP and quickly realized that, to enroll, she would be required to apply for child support.

• CECILIA DOUGLASS:

  It was an immediately — a moment of pause, because I knew that my intention was not to rely on this assistance longer than I absolutely needed.

  You tell me when to let go.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  For Douglass, that meant opening a case against her newborn son's absent father and working with the Department for Children and Families to establish a child support order in court, a daunting prospect.

• CECILIA DOUGLASS:

  I felt that if I applied, it would create an unhealthy environment for my son, but also my older daughters.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Weighing her options, Douglass chose to go without.

• CECILIA DOUGLASS:

  It's heartbreaking when your child comes to you and says, "Mom, I'm hungry," and the only thing you have to feed them is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Chairman Awerkamp notes parents can apply for exemptions from the rule if pursuing child support could create a dangerous situation for them or their children.

• State Rep. Francis Awerkamp:

  If there is good cause for an exemption, the exemptions are granted.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  But an exemption requires official evidence, like a police report or witness statement.

• Karen Siebert, Harvesters:

  This doesn't affect the noncustodial parent. This is affecting the mom and the kids.

  Who do you have packing it?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Karen Siebert is a policy adviser for Harvesters, one of Kansas' largest food bank networks. She supports efforts to repeal the requirement.

• Karen Siebert:

  The child support services has many levers by which to get child support. They have — they can garnish wages. They can do all sorts of things. Bringing food assistance in as a weapon is what we really have a problem with.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Siebert says she sees the effect of these kinds of requirements up close at the food pantries her organization serves.

• Karen Siebert:

  The effect of all of these restrictions is that people are no longer on these programs or can't access these programs, and so they're turning to the charitable sector.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  When asked about some criticism of the state's restrictions on food assistance, Chairman Awerkamp said the policies are about creating — quote — "a life of self-sustainability."

• State Rep. Francis Awerkamp:

  I think it's so important to understand the spirit of these programs. What are they for? It's not to keep people on food welfare. It's actually to help them move off.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Kansas ranks third from the bottom in access to SNAP, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And experts say three in 10 Kansans who would otherwise be eligible for the benefit do not receive it, largely because of state policies.

  Despite that, Kansas' food stamp reforms, particularly its time limits for the benefit, have been held up as a model by right-wing groups. And nearly a dozen states have made changes based on the ones in Kansas.

  Edward Bolen, Center of Budget and Policy Priorities: They tend to go to state legislatures where they might have a receptive audience.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Ed Bolen is the director of SNAP state strategies at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank.

• Edward Bolen:

  We have seen troubling indications that folks are losing benefits without any positive outcomes.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  With this year's election, SNAP may soon be on the line. Former President Donald Trump proposed major cuts to food assistance while in office, and has nodded again towards welfare restrictions on the campaign trail.

  Donald Trump , Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: So, first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting, and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Bolen worries that further restrictions to SNAP would hurt America's poorest.

• Edward Bolen:

  The independent and sort of academic research has increasingly shown that those time limits don't work, that the only real outcome is less SNAP participation.

  And, hopefully, we can get past the idea of threatening to take away food assistance from these folks in order to get them into work.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Back in South Carolina, with the nation's patchwork of food assistance programs, Betsy Cruz is glad her family can access the benefit. But it's still a struggle to put food on the table.

• Betsy Cruz:

  Yesterday, I spent 2 cent over. I was digging through my purse trying to find two pennies just to pay the rest of my SNAP.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  What does that feel like?

• Betsy Cruz:

  It's indescribable. I just feel like trash, that I'm here for a free handout and I'm just nothing to this country.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Gilbert, South Carolina.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You can find more of our coverage of America's Safety Net online. That's at PBS.org/NewsHour