Copy Paste Remix #1: SNAP Judgment — When the United States Criminalizes Hunger
by Telisa Nyoka King, M.A.
America loves a bootstrap story, right up until someone actually needs the boots. For decades, politicians and pundits have turned food assistance into a morality play — painting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients as freeloaders instead of families trying to eat. SNAP currently sustains nearly 12% of the U.S. population, delivering an average of $187 per month in vital food assistance (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service [USDA FNS], 2024). Yet behind the numbers lies a sobering truth: four in ten recipients are children, one in five are retirees, and nearly a third of participants work full time, still unable to outpace grocery costs that have surged over 20% since 2020 (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [CBPP], 2023). The same country that subsidizes billion-dollar corporations can’t stomach the idea of helping a single mother buy groceries without making her prove her worth. Every budget cut comes with a sermon about “personal responsibility,” as if hunger were a choice and dignity a luxury. But let’s be clear: when the state decides who deserves to eat, that’s not welfare policy — that’s social control dressed in red, white, and blue.
This story didn’t start with today’s budget debates; it’s a rerun of an old American script. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration perfected the myth of the “welfare queen,” turning Black motherhood into a political villain and poverty into a moral scandal. That stereotype didn’t just justify welfare cuts — it rewired the nation’s empathy. From the Clinton-era “reform” that promised to end welfare as we knew it, to the current obsession with work requirements and fraud investigations, every generation redresses the same lie: that poverty is a pathology, not a policy outcome (CBPP, 2023). SNAP became the stage where race, class, and capitalism perform their most predictable act — pretending that hunger is about individual failure instead of structural design.
Today, the stakes are higher than ever. New policy shifts are tightening the screws on SNAP eligibility and imposing ever-stricter work requirements that disproportionately affect people of color, single mothers, and those in precarious employment. For instance, the FY 2025 income eligibility standards left many low-income households hovering just above the threshold, and states are re-requiring able-bodied adults to engage in work or training activities in order to access benefits (USDA FNS, 2025). Meanwhile, benefit levels barely keep pace with inflation — one analysis noted that the minimum benefit would increase by only a dollar for some households (JournalistsResource, 2025). The result? Millions of Americans are being forced to juggle hourly shifts, unstable gigs, caregiving responsibilities, and hunger — and the burden falls hardest on communities already facing structural disadvantages (United States Department of Agriculture, 2025). This isn’t just policy misalignment; it’s hunger as class war by other means.
Behind every statistic is a story the headlines never tell. The cashier who skips lunch so her child can eat dinner. The elder rationing medication to afford groceries. The student working two part-time jobs but still being told they “don’t qualify.” These aren’t exceptions — they’re the rule of survival in a system designed to humiliate the hungry. Public discourse keeps recycling the same tired tropes — that poor people just need to budget better, cook smarter, work harder — as if the price of dignity were measured in coupons. SNAP recipients are scrutinized for what’s in their carts while billionaires get tax write-offs for yachts. That’s not irony; that’s ideology. And it reveals something sinister about American culture: we’d rather shame the poor than confront the poverty we’ve created (CBPP, 2023).
But while policymakers debate budgets, communities are already doing what the state won’t: feeding each other. Across the Bay Area, local food banks are holding the line against hunger, one grocery bag at a time. The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank delivers more than 50 million pounds of food each year, serving neighborhoods from Bayview to the Mission. The Alameda County Community Food Bank feeds one in four residents in its county, while Second Harvest of Silicon Valley supports working families across San Mateo and Santa Clara counties — many of whom still don’t qualify for SNAP despite struggling to make rent (San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, 2025; Alameda County Community Food Bank, 2025; Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, 2025). Supporting these food banks isn’t charity; it’s solidarity. Until SNAP snaps back, they are the front line of equity work — a living reminder that justice starts not in Congress, but in the community pantry.
When we talk about SNAP, we’re really talking about whose hunger counts. The debate has never been about efficiency or fraud; it’s about control — who deserves relief and who must earn it through suffering. In Ethnic Studies, we name this what it is: structural violence (CBPP, 2023). The state polices poor bodies while pretending to promote independence, cutting benefits in the name of “fiscal responsibility” even as it subsidizes corporate excess (USDA FNS, 2025). Hunger isn’t an accident; it’s a policy outcome. And every time America trims SNAP in the name of discipline, it reveals what kind of nation it wants to be — one that feeds the myth of meritocracy while starving its people. After all, if justice begins at the table, then this country has a long history of deciding who gets a seat and who goes hungry. In a country that worships the free market, hunger isn’t an accident — it’s a design flaw.
References
Alameda County Community Food Bank. (2025). Ending hunger in Alameda County. https://accfb.org
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2023). A closer look at who benefits from SNAP: State-by-state fact sheets. https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/a-closer-look-at-who-benefits-from-snap-state-by-state-fact-sheets
JournalistsResource. (2025, February). SNAP cuts loom: What to know about this federal nutrition program. https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/snap-cuts-2025/
San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. (2025). Hunger report. https://www.sfmfoodbank.org
Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. (2025). Impact and hunger insights. https://www.shfb.org
United States Department of Agriculture, Food & Nutrition Service. (2024). Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Key statistics and research. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/key-statistics-and-research/
United States Department of Agriculture, Food & Nutrition Service. (2025, August 29). SNAP work requirements. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/work-requirements
United States Department of Agriculture. (2025, April 17). USDA reiterates importance of those who can work should work while receiving SNAP [Press release]. https://www.usda.gov/news/press-releases