Cassidy

American families have been struggling with rising grocery prices and growing hunger. Congress and President Trump responded by passing the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), making the largest food assistance cuts in history to give millionaires tax breaks. Now, Congress has a chance to reverse the harm in the pending Farm Bill.

With the Michigan League for Public Policy’s new fact sheets on hunger, you can learn about how food insecurity affects families in your county and why it’s vital to protect and strengthen federal nutrition programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The fact sheets are available at mlpp.org/food-access-in-your-county.

According to CBS News, food costs are up by 18% since OBBBA’s enactment. We should be fighting growing hunger among children and older adults. Instead, OBBBA explicitly targets these groups and their families for SNAP cuts.

Federal law limits adults without disabilities to three months of SNAP benefits every three years unless they prove they’re working at least 80 hours per month.

Due to persistently high unemployment, that time limit had been waived throughout most of the state. Effective March 1, however, OBBBA raised the unemployment rate a county needs to qualify for a waiver to at least 10%. Under the new criterion, the time limit’s been reinstated in Alpena County (but remains in effect for now in Alcona, Montmorency, and Presque Isle Counties), meaning that residents could soon start losing their benefits if they can’t prove they’re meeting the work requirement.

Also, people 55 and older and parents or caregivers of minor children previously were exempt from the time limit. Under OBBBA, adults aren’t exempt until they reach age 65 and parents or caregivers are exempt only if they have children younger than 14.

These changes could be harsh here in northeast Michigan, where child food insecurity is already exceptionally high. For example, 1 in 4 kids in Montmorency County is experiencing hunger.

This region comprising Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency and Presque Isle Counties is also home to a rapidly aging population.

SNAP is critical in this part of the state, serving more than 8,500 people every month in 2025. Forty-two percent of northeast Michigan households that use SNAP include someone at least 60 years old.

Taking food away does nothing to help people find jobs. Instead, it punishes many who are actually working, but struggle to cut through the red tape involved with documenting it.

Overwhelmingly, SNAP participants who can work already do. In fact, 83% of Michigan households that use SNAP include at least one working adult.

SNAP participants typically work in jobs with low wages that haven’t kept pace with the cost of living. These jobs also tend to have unpredictable schedules, high displacement and volatility. The time limit unfairly penalizes workers for work hour fluctuations beyond their control.

Now, OBBBA threatens SNAP access for more parents and older adults without addressing fundamental obstacles to work for these groups. A lack of affordable child care options, age discrimination, unpaid caregiving responsibilities, lack of disability accommodations and health problems that tend to come with aging can make it more difficult to find a job.

Michigan kids and seniors deserve representatives who won’t sacrifice their basic needs to make the richest people even richer. This year’s Farm Bill presents an opportunity for our elected officials to reverse OBBBA’s harm to families and work toward an economy where all of us have the food we need to survive and thrive.