Florida seniors on food stamps are 'counting pennies.' Now, Congress is, too

MIAMI — Easing herself into the sofa in her Cutler Bay studio apartment, Alida Gonzalez said she’s been trying to relax recently. But, she continued, living in a daily state of “counting pennies,” particularly at the grocery store, takes its toll. And that’s even with the help of the roughly $100 she receives each month from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.

The 79-year-old is one of nearly 3 million Floridians who receive benefits from SNAP, a government program launched in 1939 that has since become the principal source of food assistance for lower-income Americans.

That may soon change. As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, House Republicans voted last week to slash nearly $300 billion in federal SNAP funds over the next 10 years by having states pay some of the program’s costs and by expanding work requirements to older recipients, as well as some parents.

Proponents — including Republicans like South Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, in whose District 27 an estimated 17% of households receive SNAP money — have celebrated the raft of tax cuts, as well as an end to the “abuse of federal programs.” Salazar did not respond to a request for comment.

Should the Senate approve those changes and President Donald Trump sign them into law, which supporters hope could happen as early as July 4, Florida would be on the hook for $1.6 billion in costs if state lawmakers choose to maintain benefits for current SNAP users, roughly 13% of the state’s population.

Otherwise, scores of Floridians could lose food assistance money at a time when high costs already have already stretched many families, pushing thousands toward hunger, harming local economies and making communities less safe, critics say.

Who uses SNAP?

Florida’s 2.9 million SNAP recipients drew $6.4 billion from the federally funded program in 2023, the most recent fully reported year. That’s an average of $184 per SNAP user per month.

Children and seniors account for 38% and 24% of Florida SNAP recipients, respectively. More than half of all Florida households receiving SNAP benefits include someone with a disability.

In Miami-Dade, almost a quarter of all households rely on SNAP to pay their grocery bills, the fifth-highest rate of any county in Florida, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Within the county, four in 10 households that receive food stamps have a child, while six in 10 have someone older than 60.

Gonzalez is in the latter category. A single retiree, she lives with her dog in subsidized senior housing and gets by on a monthly $940 Social Security check.

“I couldn’t live” without food assistance, she said.

Her neighbor, Rigoberto Zarza, agrees. He stopped buying meat years ago because it was “too expensive.” The $100 he gets each month in food stamps keeps food on his table.

A staunch Republican and unregretful three-time Trump voter, Zarza, 86, opposes cuts to SNAP. He thinks “they could be bad” for him and his community of retirees, many of whom live on fixed incomes and razor-thin financial margins.

The two Cutler Bay residents are far from alone in their financial precariousness.

Feeding South Florida, the region’s largest food bank, estimates that 400,000 people in Miami-Dade — nearly 15% of the population — are food insecure, meaning they don’t have enough to eat or don’t know where their next meal will come from. According to the organization, Miami-Dade’s rate of food insecurity is up 50% from 2019 levels.

Cutting food stamp benefits could push those people over the brink, and the ripple effects could harm local economies, said Jared Nordlund, political director of UnidosUS, a Latino advocacy organization. If people are struggling to afford food, they’ll spend less. That could affect farmers, who may see less demand for their crops, he added.

And communities could feel more vulnerable or unsafe if many residents suddenly struggle to meet their basic needs. “Individuals do what they need to do in order to feed their families,” reflected state Sen. Shevrin Jones. “It turns into a criminal justice issue.”

Jones, a Miami Gardens Democrat, is pessimistic about the Florida Legislature’s willingness to fill any SNAP funding holes left by the federal government.

“I have no faith in Florida to be genuine in how it takes care of people,” he said.

States to pay, older people to work

The federal government has historically funded the Depression-era food stamps program in its entirety. No longer. Come 2028, states will have to fund at least 5% of their SNAP budgets, if the House bill becomes law.

But states like Florida that have a history of miscalculating their participants’ monthly benefits could have to finance up to a quarter of their SNAP allotments. Under the current system, states determine who is eligible for food stamps and how much each participant receives. The federal government then provides that money in full.

Pointing to Florida’s recent unwillingness to expand federal food assistance programs, U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat who represents parts of Miami-Dade, emphasized that the state government cannot be counted on to pick up SNAP costs. And with Florida already projected to run a $10 billion deficit over the next three years, while at the same time exploring ways to further cut taxes, the state is unlikely to radically increase food assistance spending, she said.

To cut costs, it might change certain qualifications that currently make SNAP more accessible to more Floridians, says Salaam Bhatti, SNAP director at the Food Research and Action Center, a D.C.-based nonprofit that supports anti-hunger policies. Because both costs and wages are higher in Florida than in much of the U.S., Floridians can earn more than the federal income threshold and still qualify for food stamps.

The federal government’s earnings limit is $41,795 for a four-person household; in Florida, a family of four can earn up to $64,300 and still qualify. Tallahassee could adopt the federal government’s lower cutoff to reduce costs, Bhatti said.

Or, states that are unwilling to pay into SNAP might leave the program altogether, the Congressional Budget Office wrote.

The House bill also increases work requirements for SNAP recipients. Previously, those 54 and older didn’t have to work to qualify for SNAP. Neither did recipients with children under the age of 18. Now, all able-bodied people between the ages of 18 and 64 will need to work 80 hours a month to receive benefits, except for parents with children younger than 7.

That could be a problem for recipients in their 50s and 60s, for whom “it’s a lot harder to find a job within three months,” noted Bhatti, referencing the window SNAP recipients would have to secure employment before losing benefits. And the reporting demands that come with work requirements are often laden with enough red tape to potentially cause recipients to lose their benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank.

While the originally proposed cuts to SNAP sought to exclude anyone who isn’t a U.S. citizen or green-card holder, South Florida representatives pushed for a carveout for the many Cuban immigrants who lack permanent legal status. Under the bill passed last week, Cuban nationals in the U.S. who lack permanent residency but came either through family sponsorship or on a parole status will still be eligible for food stamps.

Such an exception “reflects political expediency,” rather than equitable policymaking, said Nordlund.

“If SNAP is a critical resource for Cuban families in Miami-Dade, why isn’t it a critical resource for every other hardworking family in Florida?” he wondered.