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At an event at nonprofit Food for Lane County, Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle said more than 90,000 Oregonians risk losing food benefits if they can’t find employment by next Jan. 1.
U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle warned that proposed cuts to the federal food assistance program will devastate Oregon families, calling the policy “moral negligence” during a press conference July 29 at Food for Lane County’s warehouse in Eugene.
Hoyle, the Democrat who represents Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, was joined by Rebecca Sprinson, director of development for Food for Lane County, and Alex Aghdaei of Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon to highlight the impact of SNAP — Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — reductions on local families and food banks.
The cuts will affect 90,000 veterans, homeless individuals, parents and older adults in Oregon who risk losing benefits if they can’t find employment by Jan. 1. An additional 40,000 working families will lose $58 per month in grocery assistance under new work requirements that advocates say are designed to remove people from the program.
“This is $6 a day, $2 per meal,” Hoyle said. “The cruelty is the point. … They said that the way to balance the budget is to take $6 a day from hungry people when we know hungry children can’t learn, when we know that seniors rely on SNAP for just that little bit, and the majority of people who are getting SNAP work for a living.”
Food for Lane County executive director Carolyn Stein told Lookout Eugene-Springfield that 1 in 6 people in Oregon receive assistance through SNAP. She also said that statewide, about 85% of the households receiving SNAP benefits are working families with at least one household member who is employed.
Locally, Food for Lane County serves more than 80,000 people every year at least once, “a significant percentage of our community,” Stein said.
The cuts and the impact they will have are “completely unprecedented,” according to Stein.
“There’s so many unknowns,” she said. “It could mean that we just have to be really creative in how we find solutions. How do we ensure that our state still has reasonable access to SNAP benefits, and also enough resources in the food banking system to provide that additional support?”
Food for Lane County does not document whether people using their services are also eligible for or are receiving SNAP. But Stein said she is already hearing from people who use the food bank services who are worried.
“People are absolutely concerned,” she said.
Stein also said that for every dollar of SNAP benefits that are distributed, $1.80 goes back into the community through people spending those benefits at grocery stores.
The Food Research & Action Center reports that in 2023, nearly 3,500 grocery stores and farmers markets in Oregon redeemed $1.86 billion from SNAP.
Food for Lane County has already seen demand surge 101% since 2022 at the different pantry sites in its distribution network, while federal food donations have declined. The organization distributed more than 8 million pounds of food in 2024 through 150 partner agencies. But Hoyle spoke in front of a backdrop of many empty warehouse shelves.
“Up to 20% of Food for Lane County’s planned food supply won’t ever arrive,” Sprinson said, about the federal government canceling a USDA program that purchased food from U.S. farmers and provided it to food banks.
The cuts come as Oregon faces additional economic pressures, including from tariffs affecting the export-dependent state. Hoyle noted that 40% of Oregon’s international wine sales to Canada stopped overnight due to trade policies.
“When we aren’t exporting, we’re losing jobs, and when we’re losing jobs, that’s less income tax going to the state,” Hoyle said. “It also means that more people are in need of these programs. So it’s coming at a very bad time. I personally think that the best social program is a good paying job with benefits and so we need more of those, not less.”
Hoyle said she is working with the state legislature and talking “to every single Republican” she can and asking, “Is this actually what you intended when you made these cuts? And if not, will you work with me to get them reinstated?”
Hoyle urged constituents to contact her office for help navigating federal benefit programs and to share their stories with lawmakers.
