Oregonians who received federal aid to pay for their groceries last year frequently reported working for the nation’s largest grocery and retail corporations, according to a Capital Chronicle analysis of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data from the Oregon Department of Human Services.

The data, taken from SNAP income verification forms, shows that tens of thousands of employees of major national and multinational corporations — and some government agencies, public schools and colleges — rely on the public assistance program for low-income Americans to cover their food costs.

The Capital Chronicle requested data showing the number of times companies were listed on SNAP income verification forms between January 2025 and December 2025, for any company listed at least 25 times. The list included 1,000 companies collectively listed more than 100,000 times.

SNAP in Oregon by the numbers:

  • One in six Oregonians uses federal SNAP food and nutrition assistance to pay for groceries. Roughly one-quarter are children and one-fifth are 65 and older.
  • The average individual receives $183 in food assistance each month, and the average household gets $313 per month.
  • Oregon’s SNAP income limits are the highest allowed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which sets the eligibility threshold at 200% or less of the federal poverty limit. This means an Oregonian making about $32,000 or less each year, or a family of four with income around $66,000 or less annually, are eligible.

One in five of those most commonly listed employers was a major grocer and retailer, with Safeway and its parent company Albertsons the most listed, followed by Walmart and online retail giant Amazon.

The top listed companies financially benefitted in the billions from President Donald Trump’s 2017 corporate and income tax cuts that were recently renewed in a massive tax and spending cut law congressional Republicans passed and Trump signed last summer. The 2025 law also included new corporate tax subsidies, allowing businesses to deduct upfront from their taxes 100% of the costs of new equipment, real estate and research and development.

Because of those cuts, Walmart’s effective income tax rate is about half of what it was ten years ago, according to the left-leaning think tank Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. And Amazon in 2025 paid an effective federal income tax rate of less than 1.5% on its U.S. income, avoiding about $17.5 billion of federal taxes it would have otherwise had to pay, according to the institute.

That same GOP megalaw included the steepest federal funding cuts to the SNAP program in its history — $186 billion over 10 years.

In an opinion essay in The Hill defending the cuts in April, Brooke Rollins, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the federal program, wrote that SNAP since its inception has “all too often drifted from its original purpose. Instead of offering a temporary hand up, it has turned into a handout that threatens to trap Americans in a vicious cycle of government dependence.”

Under the new SNAP eligibility rules, recipients up to age 64 are required to file paperwork each month proving they’ve worked, volunteered or participated in work training for at least 80 hours. Recipients caring for dependents under 14 are exempt from monthly reporting requirements, but have to report any changes to their income.

At Oregon’s minimum wage of $15.05 per hour, even someone working a full 40-hour week at minimum wage is eligible for SNAP benefits.

Since the 2025 law took effect, nearly 47,000 Oregonians who previously had SNAP benefits no longer have them, according to combined data from the state’s human services department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the state expects more than 300,000 SNAP recipients could eventually be impacted by the changes.

Top employers listed

Besides Safeway/Albertsons, Walmart and Amazon, other top employers listed in income verification forms include Fred Meyer and its parent company Kroger, and the Oregon Department of Human Services itself.

The agency provides pay to thousands of the roughly 50,000 home care workers in the state who are technically employed by the person they are caring for, and who make an average of $21.25 an hour, according to agency spokesperson Jake Sunderland. In-home care company New Horizon and its parent company Altru Home Care is also among the top employers listed by SNAP recipients.

Senior reporter Alex Baumhardt covers education and the environment for the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Before coming to Oregon, she was a national radio producer and reporter covering education for American Public Media's documentaries and investigations unit, APM Reports. She earned a master's degree in digital and visual media as a U.S. Fulbright scholar in Spain, and has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.