More New Yorkers Are Forgoing Food Stamps Amid Federal Overhaul

From January 2025 to February 2026, New York State saw a 6.2 percent drop in SNAP participants, more than 180,000 people—in line with a nationwide decline that anti-hunger advocates say stems from federal changes to the program, rather than a drop in need.

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Fewer New Yorkers are getting food assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—in line with a nationwide decline that anti-hunger advocates say stems from federal changes to the program, rather than a drop in need.

From January 2025 to February 2026, the latest month for which data is available, New York State saw a 6.2 percent enrollment decline in SNAP, a program that helps low-income residents buy food. In New York City, during the same period, SNAP participation declined by 5.5 percent, affecting more than 100,000 people, even as food insecurity remains high.

Policy experts say federal policy changes, not economic improvement, are the most likely cause. They point to new work requirements for many SNAP recipients taking effect this spring, as well as a chilling effect from the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown, which some suspect is scaring off eligible immigrant families from getting aid. 

All in all, they say, more New Yorkers are no longer receiving food assistance despite struggling to afford food.

“When people forgo SNAP who are otherwise eligible, that just makes their household budgets tighter and tighter and tighter,” said Zac Hall, senior vice president of programs at Food Bank For NYC. “And they probably forgo going to the doctor and paying copays or buying medicines, or they have potentially less money in their savings account to deal with emergencies that may arise.”

Last summer, Congress passed the H.R. 1 package, also known as the “One, Big Beautiful Bill,” which narrowed eligibility for SNAP, tightened work requirements, and shifted more administrative pressure onto states.

Across the country, SNAP participation fell by more than 3 million people, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis, the sharpest decline in decades, at 8 percent. 

New York’s decrease may not yet be as high as in other states, experts explained, because it only recently started implementing SNAP’s new work requirement for people identified as Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents. 

It mandates that most adults without young children spend at least 20 hours a week working, volunteering or attending job training programs. Local SNAP recipients who fail to comply with the new rules, or fail to properly document their compliance, could start losing their benefits in June, when advocates anticipate even greater enrollment drops.

City officials said some people may have already dropped out of SNAP voluntarily if they do not want to, or believe they cannot comply with, the new rules. Hall described New York City’s more than 5 percent dip since last year as “fairly significant.”

Elsewhere within the state, 21 counties have already experienced greater enrollment declines than the national average: Livingston, Wayne, Schuyler, and Hamilton counties saw declines of more than 12 percent, while Albany and Suffolk counties saw a nearly 10 percent decrease.

Federal officials recently attributed the dropping participation numbers to the administration’s efforts to root out fraud via the new work rules, and to an improving economy—though experts who spoke to the Associated Press disputed those claims.

New York State state officials said the program changes are merely “a broad-based effort to undermine SNAP, scapegoat those who receive assistance from the program, and slash federal resources for a program that has long been a federal responsibility.”

“Under the guise of efforts to reduce waste, fraud and abuse, federal actions related to SNAP are intentionally aimed at reducing food assistance to those in need,” a spokesperson for the New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which administers SNAP at the state level, said in a statement.

CBPP experts described SNAP participation historically as an accordion-like movement: expanding to meet need in hard times, and then shrinking when economic conditions improve. But the reduction seen last year is out of the norm in a struggling economy.

“New York’s caseload fell similarly during the recovery following the Great Recession, primarily because of a reduction in people’s need for food assistance,” said Ed Bolen, CBPP’s director of SNAP state strategies, via email. “Prior to that, the last time there was a steep decrease in participation in a short period of time was nearly three decades ago, in the late 1990s after Congress enacted very deep cuts to SNAP (then the Food Stamp Program) in 1996.”

According to OTDA data, the statewide decline became more noticeable after the passage of H.R. 1 last July, but in the city, it was a late-year decline, aggravated by the federal government shutdown in October, which delayed people from getting their monthly SNAP benefits for more than a week.

Until this year, SNAP participation in New York City had increased annually since the pandemic, peaking at 1.8 million people in 2025. A decline of the proportion seen in recent months hasn’t happened in many years.

According to the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS), which administers SNAP in the five boroughs, the caseload decrease began in October, during the federal shutdown, and has continued into this year, while application volume remains lower than in previous years.

SNAP beneficiaries in Manhattan decreased by 6 percent from January 2025 to January 2026, the steepest decline of any borough, followed by Brooklyn and Queens.

SNAP Participation by Borough (Source: NYC Dept. of Social Services)
Month	Bronx	Brooklyn	Manhattan	Queens	Staten Island
Jan-25	494,972	629,754	240,178	361,134	75,598
Jan-26	474,866	599,370	225,976	343,239	72,933
Difference	-20,106	-30,384	-14,202	-17,895	-2,665
% Difference	-4%	-5%	-6%	-5%	-4%

Advocates said the declines may also be associated with immigration enforcement fear, as the federal government seeks to ramp up deportations. While undocumented immigrants are not eligible for SNAP, some mixed-status families, like those with U.S.-born kids or parents, can get the benefits even if other household members are undocumented. 

Advocates say a mix of added bureaucracy, fear, and misinformation is discouraging eligible people from entering the program or prompting them to leave, including some who incorrectly assume SNAP participation will make them targets of immigration enforcement.

“Immigrants in particular have been impacted by hostile discourse and the presence of immigration enforcement in NYC communities,” said Kanchana Suggu, senior vice president and chief impact officer at United Way of New York City, an organization that helps low-income residents access SNAP benefits. “The community-based organizations we work with have reported fewer application appointments and increased cancellations, partly driven by applicants’ fears of leaving their homes due to ICE activity—particularly in Staten Island.”

The drop comes even as food insecurity remains high. In a November survey from Columbia University and anti-poverty nonprofit Robin Hood (a City Limits funder), more than 40 percent of families with children reported being unable to afford weekly food costs. Another recent report from the nonprofit City Harvest found that more families with kids are visiting food pantries.    

SNAP enrollment numbers are expected to drop further in the coming months. OTDA estimates more than 300,000 New York households will lose some or all of their SNAP benefits due to their inability to meet or document their compliance with the new work requirements, “despite the growing need, NYC’s staggering affordability crisis, and rising food costs,” Suggu said via email.

That could also mean more than $700 million less coming to the state’s economy and its food supply chain. 

“The federal government has calculated that about $1.54 of economic activity is produced for every dollar of SNAP benefits,” Hall said. “Those … million[s] that were spent as benefits in January went to grocery stores, also offset people’s household budgets so that they could pay rent. The grocery stores could then pay their commercial leases, could pay their staff salary, could reinvest in their companies by buying more food products, and so forth.”

Additionally, the H.R. 1 legislation changed SNAP’s funding formula so that states would now have to cover half the costs, meaning New York State will have to pay approximately $1.2 billion more starting in fiscal year 2027.

“States and counties need time to prepare for these massive cost shifts. A few states will receive a two-year delay as a result of the so-called ‘Alaska carveout’ negotiated in H.R.1, but New York is unlikely to qualify,” said Krista Hesdorfer, director of public affairs at Hunger Solutions New York. “We urge Congress to expand that delay to all states, giving all states and counties an equal chance to prepare.”

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