Montgomery County federal, state and local officials protest SNAP cuts, changes
Southeast Delegation September 24, 2025 | 10:57 AM
POTTSTOWN, Sept. 23 – State Rep. Joe Ciresi and Sen. Art Haywood, both D-Montgomery, spoke today about the impact of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program changes and cuts in Montgomery County.
“SNAP has for decades enabled low-income Pennsylvanians to put food on their families’ tables and supported our communities’ social health and economic stability,” Ciresi said. “At a time when food insecurity is growing in Montgomery County, the federal budget cuts and changes to SNAP will have an impact on our communities like that of an asteroid hitting earth. There’ll be a ground zero and then ripples outward from the impact. None of us will be unaffected.”
Ciresi said food insecurity in Montgomery County is growing at the time the SNAP cuts are being enacted. According to Feeding America, 9.9% of Montgomery County’s population, or 85,500 people, were food insecure in 2023, and 40% of the population was below the SNAP threshold. According to a 2024 Montgomery County report, SNAP enrollment in Montgomery County had tripled, from 17,194 in 2004 to 62,700 in 2023.
“At ground zero, it’s the 144,000 Pennsylvanians—430 in my district—who will lose 100% of their SNAP benefits. These food insecure people will now have to decide whether to eat or to spend their money on necessities—such as rent and utilities or transportation or even laundry detergent for clean clothes.
“Next, the grocers, food retailers and farms in PA that were supported by $366 million in federally funded food assistance benefits in 2024 will be left scrambling. Some employees will lose their jobs, some places will close. The food accessibility pipeline they are part of, and we all depend on, will be disrupted.
“Finally, everyone in our communities is going to be affected, from our schools caring for hungry kids to our hospitals treating nutritionally deprived patients to our churches and food pantries feeding exponentially more hungry people to our small businesses’ struggling with a loss of revenue due to decreased consumerism.
“SNAP helped stabilize our communities and support our economic growth. With more people in our communities living on the edge due to these cuts and changes to SNAP, life will become unstable for us all. No one will be untouched by this devastation—except for the billionaires made even richer by this budget.”
According to Ciresi, many SNAP-eligible Pennsylvanians will be forced off the rolls due to the program not functioning correctly.
"Some defenders of these cuts argue that no one who is eligible for food assistance will be forced off SNAP. They simply need to comply with the new reporting requirements – whether that is a permissible exemption, or reporting work hours, or volunteering,” Ciresi said.
“Listen, I’ve seen the federal government roll out pandemic-era Unemployment Benefits. I’ve heard my constituents’ customer service horror stories when they tried to get REAL ID in time. Mistakes happen, websites falter, and people who are trying to follow the rules sometimes get shut out.
“The notion that thousands of eligible SNAP recipients will not get tripped up on red tape and silly reporting requirements is laughable."
Ciresi said the SNAP cuts and changes are the latest initiative by the Trump administration to reduce food assistance.
According to Ciresi, food assistance resources in Montgomery County had already been reduced by the Trump administration’s food systems policy changes which terminated key programs such as Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement, and Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program. They also paused the contract of The Emergency Food Assistance Program.
Due to the Trump administration’s cancelation of an annual report on food insecurity beginning in 2025 as reported by the Wall Street Journal, it will be more difficult to determine how many people are suffering from hunger in the U.S.
Ciresi said, “The Trump administration has canceled the food insecurity survey because they don’t want us to know how many people and their families are going hungry due to the SNAP cuts and changes.
“The Trump administration is trying to duck responsibility for the millions of Americans who are going to suffer by their cutting SNAP. I won’t let them.”
Like Ciresi, Haywood, who is co-chair of the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee, said, “Our communities are rallying to support our neighbors to keep food on the table despite the Republican efforts to deny our dignity.”
Joining Ciresi and Haywood were U.S. Rep. Madeline Dean; Jaqui Good, executive director, Pottsotwn Cluster; Sam Applefield, Food Policy Program coordinator, Montgomery County of Public Health; Ronald Reeves, a market co-owner; and a local SNAP recipient.