Why SNAP Matters Now More Than Ever

For families across Maine, putting food on the table is becoming an increasingly difficult balancing act. We are hearing this directly from our network of charitable food assistance partners.

The message from our partners is consistent: the need continues to grow as more Maine households find it challenging to balance the cost of food with other essential expenses, including rent, heating oil, utilities, transportation, and health care.

The Map the Meal Gap data reinforces what our partners are seeing on the ground: food insecurity in Maine is rising, and the need has become more sustained. Released by Feeding America on July 28, 2026, the annual study uses 2024 data to estimate food insecurity and food costs at the local level. The estimates show that more than 203,000 Mainers, or 14.5% of the state’s population, experienced food insecurity in 2024, up from 13.8% in 2023. This marks the fifth consecutive year of rising food insecurity in Maine. Among children, the rate was even higher at 20.7%, representing more than 50,000 Maine children. Maine continues to have the highest rate of child food insecurity in New England.

Map the Meal Gap provides estimates for every Maine county and congressional district, illustrating that hunger affects communities across the state. However, the data reflects conditions in 2024, and what our partners are seeing suggests that current need may be even greater. Food pantries across Maine continue to respond to economic pressures and reductions in federal assistance that began in spring 2025. A sample of partner food pantries reported more than a 10% year-over-year increase in visits during the first nine months of 2026 (January–September), even as resources available to meet that need continue to shrink. These trends point to a prolonged and increasingly complex challenge for Maine families and the organizations supporting them. They also underscore an important reality: food insecurity cannot be addressed by one program or organization alone. Government nutrition assistance and charitable food programs are most effective when they work together to ensure families have consistent access to the food they need.SNAP is a foundation of Maine’s hunger-relief system.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) remains the nation’s largest federal nutrition assistance program, providing eligible households with monthly benefits through an EBT card to purchase groceries. Online SNAP purchasing is now available in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., giving families more flexibility in how they access food. At the same time, SNAP is undergoing significant changes as United States Department of Agriculture USDA implements provisions of the 2025 federal budget reconciliation law (H.R.1), including new work requirements and changes to eligibility for some noncitizens.

These changes will have a direct impact in Maine. H.R. 1 expands SNAP work requirements and changes noncitizen eligibility, with Maine implementing related rule changes in 2025 and 2027. The law also shifts more SNAP administrative costs to states and could reduce participation and benefit levels nationwide. For Mainers who rely on SNAP, these changes are more than policy—they can affect whether a family has enough food at the end of the month and whether working households, older adults, and others can keep up with rising grocery costs and other essentials.

The experiences of our neighbors help bring the reality of food insecurity into focus. Behind every statistic is a person or family making difficult choices, stretching limited resources, and finding ways to put food on the table. For many, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an essential part of that effort, helping households afford groceries while they navigate the rising costs of everyday life.

But SNAP doesn’t always cover everything a family needs. Across Maine, neighbors rely on a combination of SNAP benefits, local food pantries, careful budgeting, and their own resourcefulness to make ends meet. Their stories show why these supports work best together.

Meet Molly

Molly’s family receives $125 a month in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. While that assistance helps her purchase groceries, it doesn’t come close to covering the family’s food costs for an entire month.

“My $125 SNAP benefit does not cover my food costs for a month,” she says.

To stretch what her family has, Molly draws on lessons passed down from her grandmother. She grows vegetables, cans and dehydrates produce, and makes powders that allow her to preserve food and use it long after the growing season ends. Each harvest becomes an opportunity to stock the pantry, make ingredients last longer, and find new ways to stretch the household food budget. It’s a practice rooted in resourcefulness and tradition, but one that also reflects the reality of having to make limited resources go further.

Molly also visits the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, a local food pantry that partners with Good Shepherd Food Bank. She brings home what she can from the pantry, then uses her SNAP benefits to fill in the gaps and purchase the items her family still needs. Together, these resources help her build a more complete supply of food for the month.

Even with careful planning, there are times when the family has to make difficult choices. Molly and her husband have, at times, made sure their children were fed before sitting down to eat themselves. It’s a reminder that food insecurity doesn’t always look like an empty refrigerator. Sometimes, it looks like parents quietly going without so their children can have enough.

Molly’s experience reflects the important role SNAP plays for households with children and others who may face additional barriers to meeting their basic needs. Research shows that 79% of SNAP households include a child, an older adult, or a person with a disability. For families like Molly’s, SNAP can make a meaningful difference, even when it isn’t enough to cover the full cost of groceries.

Still, Molly hopes for a day when her family no longer needs this support. “I can’t wait for the day I no longer have to use SNAP.”

Meet Samantha

Samantha has been navigating SNAP for the past eight years. As a single mother of two children in Brunswick, Maine, she knows how quickly a family’s financial circumstances can change—and how difficult it can be to find stability when the cost of living keeps rising.

Over the years, Samantha has experienced the uncertainty that can come with changes in eligibility. At one point, she lost her benefits after earning just $20 over the income limit. After recently starting a new job, she now receives $150 a month.

That assistance still matters, but the reduction leaves Samantha with difficult decisions about how to cover the household’s most basic expenses.
“You have to now choose between: Are you going to pay electricity, gas, or put food on the table?” she says.

Samantha’s experience challenges the assumption that people who receive SNAP aren’t working to support themselves and their families. Research has shown that most SNAP participants who can work do work, yet many continue to struggle to keep up with rising food prices, housing costs, utilities, and other everyday expenses. Having a job doesn’t necessarily mean having enough money left over to meet every need.

To make her budget work, Samantha visits the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program pantry one to two times a week, fitting her visits around her work schedule. The pantry helps her bring home food that would otherwise be difficult to afford.

She has developed her own strategies for making that food last. When fresh produce is plentiful, she freezes what she can so it won’t go to waste. She clips coupons, looks for ways to save at the grocery store, and carefully uses her SNAP benefits to purchase the items she can’t get through the pantry. Every trip, purchase, and saved ingredient helps her stretch her resources a little further.

For Samantha, those efforts are about more than balancing a budget. They’re about making sure her children have the food they need to grow, stay active, and feel cared for. Her 11-year-old is athletic and goes through plenty of fruits and vegetables, while her daughter loves salad above all else. Keeping fresh, nutritious food available is a priority, even when the numbers don’t always add up.

SNAP helps Samantha continue to provide those foods while she works to support her family. As she explains, the program helps cover the essentials: “[SNAP] is for fruits, vegetables, grains — ways to keep their family going.”

Meet Bea

For more than 20 years, Bea volunteered at the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program. Over those two decades, she dedicated her time to helping neighbors access food and support during difficult times. She saw firsthand how much a local pantry could mean to someone facing an uncertain month, a tight budget, or an unexpected expense.

Now in her 80s, Bea finds herself on the receiving end of that same community care. The pantry delivers a food box to her home, and SNAP helps her afford the groceries and basic necessities she still needs.

Her story is a powerful reminder that needing assistance can be part of anyone’s life, even someone who has spent years helping others. A person’s circumstances can change with age, income, health, or the rising cost of everyday essentials. The same community that once relied on Bea’s generosity now has an opportunity to support her in return.

Having spent so many years serving her neighbors, Bea has also witnessed how the need for food assistance has grown. Even now, she continues to look out for others, keeping water on hand for neighbors who aren’t able to make it to the pantry themselves. Her instinct to care for those around her hasn’t changed, even as her own needs have evolved.

Bea’s experience reflects the importance of building a community where support can flow in every direction. Food pantries provide more than groceries; they offer a connection to neighbors, a sense of belonging, and a reminder that no one should have to navigate hardship alone.

Her story also reinforces why SNAP and charitable food assistance are most effective when they work together. SNAP helps Bea cover the cost of food, while the pantry provides additional groceries and a dependable source of support. For older adults living on limited incomes, that combination can help make the difference between struggling to cover every expense and having a little more room in the budget.

Research shows that 79% of SNAP households include a child, an older adult, or a person with a disability. Bea’s experience puts a human face to that statistic, reminding us that people who need assistance come from every walk of life.

The stories of Molly, Samantha and Bea are different, but they share a common thread: SNAP is a tool that helps people navigate moments when household resources fall short of the cost of living.

And for Maine’s charitable food network, SNAP is an essential partner in the broader effort to address hunger.

As we listen to our partners and the neighbors they serve, we know that the growing need for food assistance cannot be addressed by any one organization or program. It will take strong collaboration across Maine’s food security ecosystem, working together to ensure that every Mainer has access to the food and resources they need to thrive.

If you or someone you know needs help accessing food, support is available. Visit our Food Map to find a nearby pantry and connect with local resources.