PENSACOLA, Fla. — As grocery prices continue to rise, fewer Americans are receiving financial aid to help buy food, even as demand for help remains high.
U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has dropped by more than 13 percent within the last year.
In May 2025, nearly three million Floridians received SNAP benefits. Within one year, nearly 700,000 Floridians lost their benefits — 646,821 people, or 22.2%.
For many families, SNAP is a key tool to make ends meet. Food banks are another resource, and some are grappling with growing demand.
“For every meal we put out in the food bank network, SNAP provides 9,” said Michael Ledger, president and CEO of Feeding the Gulf Coast. “We could never scale to replace the nine meals per one that the SNAP provides.”
Feeding the Gulf Coast has nearly 800 partners stretching between Mississippi and Florida, Ledger said. He described SNAP as a critical backstop for hunger relief.
“The overflow from the dam is what we’re working on and the SNAP is the dam. Of course, we wouldn’t want that dam to break,” Ledger said.
Ledger pointed to changes in legislation as a factor in the decline. In July 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill, which cut billions of dollars in federal funding toward SNAP over the next decade. The legislation also required some people who were once exempt to work or volunteer to receive benefits.
Ledger said administrative errors are also behind the dip in participation.
“This is not fraud. These are just administrative errors that could result in over a billion dollars in penalties to Florida,” Ledger said. “We’re hoping that they’re going to pass a two-year waiver for all states so they have the opportunity to actually correct these errors.”
The changes come on top of new reporting requirements for people receiving SNAP.
USDA data also shows shifting demand in Northwest Florida. Requests for applications increased within the last year for residents in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, while numbers decreased in Okaloosa County.
Ledger said Feeding the Gulf Coast’s partners are reporting longer lines for assistance.
“This has been the case now for the past several years. And yet again, another wave, another increase as we see these folks coming off the rolls,” he said.
Ledger said it took about 10 years for food security to stabilize after the economic crash in 2008, and he said it is unclear how long it will take before the need trends in the right direction.
Dining and Cooking