Local food support organizations are bracing for impact after the federal government implemented funding changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The federal government has pulled about 25% of its support for states’ SNAP budget, which Missouri Budget Project Vice President Brian Colby said has already been accounted for in the state budget. However, there's another new part of the budget for Missouri to consider.
“The big change budget-wise will be what I guess best described as penalties for having error rates that are too high,” Colby said.
Depending on the severity of the error rate, the penalty will make the state pay for an additional portion of its SNAP benefits, which would have otherwise been federally funded. Colby said the Missouri error rate from 2025 would qualify the state to pay about 15%, which comes to about $150 million.
Missouri can already afford the changed base budget, but with the penalties, there could be some gaps in funding.
This could affect local mid-Missouri resources like the Columbia Farmers Market Access to Healthy Food program, which matches money from SNAP with money people can use at the market.
Columbia Farmers Market Assistant Manager MaryCatherine Crook said the market could see some differences in how many people participate in its program.
“It would change how people that have SNAP would interact with our programs, which would then just change how much we end up, how many enrollments we end up seeing and how many matches we ultimately end up doing," Crook said.
The farmers market program also includes matching for the WIC nutrition program and support for seniors and people with disabilities.
