Nearly one year after the passage of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), close to 5 million fewer Americans received federal food assistance in March when compared with the previous year, leaving an untold number of people scrambling, The Hill reported Saturday.
Sheila Boyd, an 81-year-old New York resident, was among those who did not get booted off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) but did have her benefits significantly reduced under the OBBBA’s stricter work requirements and fewer exceptions. She previously received $298 a month, she told Nexstar’s WPIX, but abruptly had her benefits slashed to $24 a month.
“I can’t buy nutritious food. Who lives on $24 a month?” Boyd told Nexstar’s WPIX. “I need more money to eat.”
Boyd said that she often skips meals and largely relies on donations to eat. She added that she had lost weight since her federal food assistance was gutted.
“I weigh 102 pounds. I’m trying to sell things… like jewelry. My whole lifestyle is different now,” Boyd said. “I spend most of my day trying to find a way to get money to sell things. You know you work hard all your life… it’s a slap in the face. I think it’s unforgivable.”
Tax cut extensions enjoyed primarily by the wealthy were the chief achievement of the OBBBA, funded largely by significant cuts to social safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid. The cuts are projected to boot as many as 22.3 million Americans off of SNAP over a decade, and “at least” 10.5 million off of Medicaid by 2034.