New federal rules ramp up the pressure on people who count on food stamps

Daniela Spoto, director of food equity at Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, said she is particularly concerned about older food stamp recipients who may be challenged by the new requirements. Among them are people who suffer from health conditions they can’t prove are disabling, she said, who face age discrimination barriers in seeking jobs or live in rural areas where work might be difficult to find.

“There’s a lot of people that fall into this sort of gray area,” Spoto said.

Age is not the only gray area either.

Undocumented residents have never been able to sign up for SNAP, while citizens and lawful permanent residents remain eligible. But Spoto is worried about people here legally whose status falls outside allowed categories, making them no longer eligible for food stamps.

“So many just need a little bit of support, like so many others, to make sure that food is on the table as they make these huge transitions.”

Liza Ryan Gill, co-coordinator of the Hawaiʻi Coalition for Immigrant Rights

That includes refugees—some from Ukraine—as well as people who have received asylum, are allowed to remain here because they experienced domestic violence by a U.S. citizen, or Vietnamese children born during the Vietnam war whose father was a U.S. citizen.