Harrisburg, PA – Parts of the Republican budget will soon take effect — and with it, eligibility changes and cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could hit nearly 144,000 Pennsylvanians who rely on the program to put food on the table.
Every month, SNAP provides more than $365 million in federally funded benefits that can only be spent on food — supporting families, 10,000 grocery stores and retailers, and more than 53,000 farms in Pennsylvania. Now, with these cuts in place, families who receive SNAP are already making different choices at the checkout line while Pennsylvania farms and food businesses brace for the ripple effects.
In a video, Lindsay Shapiro — co-owner of Root Mass Farm in Berks County — shares how the cuts are already harming her customers and her business:
“Our customers, especially those who depend on programs like SNAP, like Farmers Market Nutrition programs — they're really concerned about where they're going to be able to get their next meal from, how they're going to be able to stock their fridge for themselves, for their children.”
Governor Josh Shapiro has made it clear that Pennsylvania cannot replace the billions in federal funds lost through the Republican budget — and that these cuts will have devastating consequences for families and the state’s economy. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, every $1 billion in federal SNAP benefits generates $1.54 billion in economic activity, supporting farm income, grocery jobs, and local businesses.
SNAP helps nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians — including children, seniors, and people with disabilities — afford groceries each month. These cuts threaten not just their health and wellbeing, but also the stability of Pennsylvania farms, grocery stores, and food supply chains.
Watch Lindsay’s story and hear how the cuts are affecting families and farms, or read the transcript below.
TRANSCRIPT
“These are fingerling potatoes — going to start digging them for market tomorrow, probably.
“I'm Lindsay Shapiro. I am the co-owner/operator of Root Mass Farm in Valley Pennsylvania. I'm originally from Massachusetts, but moved to Pennsylvania in 2006 and haven't looked back. It's an incredible state to be a farmer, and we've been operating our business since 2011, and on this land since 2022 .
“Our customers, especially those who depend on programs like SNAP, like Farmers Market Nutrition programs — they're really concerned about where they're going to be able to get their next meal from, how they're going to be able to stock their fridge for themselves, for their children.
“I've benefited a lot from Farm Bill programs, and so part of the inspiration for being able to work with Pasa is to make sure that as many farmers as possible can also benefit from those programs.
“The dramatic cuts to SNAP that we saw in the Budget Reconciliation Bill have a significant impact on our farm’s bottom line. We are already seeing people scale back in the amount of dollars that they're willing to spend. They're worried about their household finances, and they don't know if fresh produce is in the budget anymore.
“I see customers thinking about whether they want to use their SNAP dollars on fresh produce, or if they want to get something that's going to keep in the fridge or the freezer, or something that's a canned good that's non-perishable, because they don't necessarily know what their food budget is going to look like.
“We're already thinking about whether there's going to be enough government dollars circulating in that neighborhood to be able to do the farmers market next year.”
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