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Northern Illinois Food Bank warns proposed SNAP changes would overwhelm charitable network
Summary
A senior manager at the Northern Illinois Food Bank told the Kane County Agriculture Committee that proposed federal cuts and cost‑sharing changes to SNAP would force states to cover benefits and could not be offset by food banks; the food bank is already serving more neighbors after pandemic-era changes ended.
A representative of the Northern Illinois Food Bank told the Kane County Agriculture Committee on May 22 that proposed federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would amount to deep effective benefit cuts that the charitable food network cannot replace.
Robert Desaiho, senior manager of public policy and benefits at the food bank, said the organization is on track to distribute more than 93,000,000 meals this year and estimated that recent USDA cuts already reduced food available to the network by roughly 3.6 million meals and, overall, about 4–5% of the food bank’s total distributed meals. He warned committee members that provisions in a House bill discussed publicly would shift substantial SNAP costs to states through a cost‑sharing formula and would raise administrative matching requirements, saying those changes would be effectively cuts to SNAP benefits.
Desaiho described several features of the proposed changes mentioned in his remarks: an increase in states' required cost share tied to payment error rates; a change in how minor payment errors are counted; and expansions or changes to work requirements for certain adult categories. He explained that SNAP traditionally covers benefits at the federal level while states share administrative costs, and that imposing large state cost shares would be infeasible and would reduce benefit levels. "Traditionally, SNAP has been 100% federally funded, at least at the benefit level," he said, and described the proposed cost‑sharing as effectively a 25% cut in benefits in some scenarios.
Committee members pressed for context and asked how payment error rates work; Desaiho explained that error rates are administrative measures of incorrect payments (not fraud) and that Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has mitigation programs for states with high error rates. He also stressed that charitable food banks are not scaled to replace SNAP — citing the Feeding America network ratio that for every meal the network provides, SNAP provides nine — and urged donations, volunteers and local support for pantries while warning that SNAP cuts would increase visits and hunger.
Committee members connected the discussion to local food sourcing, the value of fresh produce in health outcomes, and county food‑security efforts. No committee action was taken during the presentation; the food bank representative encouraged local donations and volunteer support.
