Report: Food assistance cuts would cost Michigan about $900 million

BY ANNA LIZ NICHOLS, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—The more than $290 billion cuts to federal food assistance programming being passed through Congress in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will cost Michigan about $900 million, the Michigan State Budget Office found this week.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called attention to the memo from the State Budget Office Wednesday, estimating the losses anticipated for Michigan. The Republican-championed spending bill cleared the US House in May, with Whitmer warning in a news release that if the bill, backed by President Donald Trump, makes it through the U.S. Senate, 42 million Americans who rely on food assistance could go hungry.

“No one should go to bed hungry in Michigan or anywhere in [the] wealthiest, most powerful country in the world,” Whitmer said in the news release Wednesday. “In Michigan, we will fight to make sure our kids and families are fed, but we need Republicans in our congressional delegation to step up for their own constituents who need SNAP and Medicaid to survive. If these cuts are signed into law, more Michiganders will go to bed with a pit in their stomach. That’s unacceptable.”

The memo from the State Budget Office, or SBO, says it reviewed the potential impacts of the cuts with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, or MDHHS and found that it was unlikely that the state could backfill the impacted food assistance programs without devastating education, public safety and Medicaid spending.

About 15% of Michigan’s population, or nearly 1.5 million residents, rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is on Congress’ chopping block, the SBO memo said. More than 59% of the state’s SNAP recipients are families with children and nearly half of state recipients are for working families.

Members of the food insecurity, religious and other equity groups joined in chorus, offering statements of condemnation for the proposed cuts to food insecurity programming in the Wednesday news release from Whitmer’s office.

The federal plan is “cruel and unconscionable”, Pastor Richard R. White III, President of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit & Vicinity, said in a statement.

“These cuts will rip vital support away from countless Michiganders—children, seniors, working families, and the most vulnerable among us—at a time when they need it most. For those we serve, who already struggle to put food on the table, this is not just a policy decision—it is a moral failure,” White said in the statement. “This decision is a direct assault on the dignity and survival of millions of Americans. We call on all people of conscience to oppose these cuts and demand policies that uplift, not abandon, those most in need.”

More than 39% of SNAP recipients have family members who are elderly or living with a disability and more than half a million of Michigan’s children receive SNAP benefits, according to the SBO.

Food pantries and food banks in Michigan will see even higher demand for nutrition assistance than what they already struggle to serve, representatives of Feeding America West Michigan and Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes said in the governor’s news release.

“Many are already facing higher costs at the grocery store, along with the growing price of housing, childcare, and healthcare. More families will be skipping meals, falling behind on rent, and giving up other essentials to try and make ends meet,” Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes said in a statement.

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license. 

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