Triada Stampas is the president and CEO of Fulfill NJ, one of six food banks in New Jersey that has helped serve nearly 1 million people a month. But Stampas said she’s now worried that deep federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — formerly known as the food stamps program — could leave thousands of families across New Jersey without enough to eat.
“It is massively concerning that this bill — with cuts that are nothing short of catastrophic for the people who depend on us for food — was able to pass the House of Representatives,” she said. “It is really disappointing and concerning.”
The U.S. House proposed cutting SNAP funding by approximately $300 billion through 2034, and would require states to pay for a portion of SNAP benefits for the first time, amounting to about $100 million for New Jersey. The bill would also increase the state’s share of SNAP administrative costs, another $100 million.
New Jersey’s three House Republicans – who all voted for the bill – said that shifting more of the financial burden to states will eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the “error rate” for New Jersey’s SNAP payments reached approximately 36% in 2023, drawing criticism of the program. However, the USDA emphasized that payment errors are not the same as fraud.
Still, Michael Wilson of the state Department of Human Services, which oversees SNAP in the state, said efforts are underway to reduce the error rate.
“We know that the SNAP program is $2.5 billion in the state of New Jersey, and those numbers are real and are relevant,” Wilson said. “And I think anybody who thinks that there are significant amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse really is using that as a term of art. They’re using that as the words that they want to use.”
Under the House bill, work requirements in the program would also be expanded, raising the age to 64 from 55 and extending those requirements to households with children over seven.
Hunger Free New Jersey’s Lisa Pitz said the proposed changes to SNAP will have devastating consequences.
“In New Jersey we have about 800,000 individuals who receive SNAP, [and] of those who receive SNAP, about 1 in 5 are over the age of 60,” she said. “So we’re really talking about a lot of older adults who may be on fixed incomes who rely on SNAP.”
Pitz said other big beneficiaries are children. “We have about half of our SNAP folks who rely on SNAP in New Jersey are children. so we’re really talking about people who need this benefit to be able to afford and purchase healthy food,” she said. “This is an investment in our children’s health, it’s an investment in our older adults’ health.”
