West County Democrats

Every work day emails pile-up about different states responding to the coming food stamp crisis.  The controlled demolition of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP]  seldom merits media attention as the Trump Administration wages war against government and the world.  Yet the impacts promise to be profound.  Tens of millions of families will be have less food in their homes.  And, that’s just one of the issues.

Remember, Missouri never ran a quality food stamp program.  Indeed, the state never implemented the steps a federal court ordered in 2022 to meet basic legal requirements.  [Missouri Independent, 5/7/25]  Recent reports from friends about the state point to the call center based “system” continuing to fail to even reliably answer phone calls.  Plus, Missouri state government cheats its eligible citizens out of millions of dollars a month of benefits.  (More on that later.)

Let’s cover the basics…

1. Better than one in ten Missourians – a 662,806 citizens this July – depend on food stamps.  The horrible state system keeps that number artificially low.  Based on median household income, posted poverty rates and other data my best guess is still that about 800,000 Missourians  (one in eight) ought to receive benefits. 
2.  This July $130,476,675 in SNAP benefits were issued in Missouri:  probably 98%+ were redeemed at grocers about the state that month.  Use standard multipliers for impact on the community and food stamps are responsible for better than $200,000,000 in total economic activity in July.
3. A significant portion of food stamps get issued to families with working adults.  (Remember, a family of four earning $41,795 a year – think $20 and hour from a fulltime job – can get benefits.)  In other words, in Missouri SNAP subsidies hundreds of thousands of low-paying jobs by improving family budgets.   
4.  This year special food stamp allocations were made available to families with school-age children to help offset the cost of replacing free school meals…Of course, this year (again) Missouri couldn’t get the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Social Services to work together to make that happen.  Missouri families lost-out on a couple hundred dollars per child in food help.

By the way, that low 1:10 usage rate has consequences.  Since each household received $400 in stamps in July, at total of 800,000 participants would have meant an additional $54,000,000 in benefits and around $78,000,000 in extra economic activity..

Now for the rain clouds…

The complete Trump plan for SNAP is still in flux.  Changes will come.  The first question is from where?

• The major five year Farm Bill (which includes food stamps and WIC) is stalled in Congress.  It could dramatically cut benefits and change eligibility.
• Trump’s minions have talked of gutting the state requirements and funding formulas via Executive Orders.
• USDA can make pretty radical changes to SNAP with administrative rule changes.

A few years back I downloaded a copy of the official USDA food stamp ‘manual’ to my computer.  At a national conference (in Salt Lake City of all places) I met a guy who had a physical copy of the almanac-sized book with his own homemade index tabs!  All those rules and precedent probably mean nothing to the current USDA leadership. 

Back to Missouri…

Benefit cuts mean less money for families to buy food at a time when grocery costs are soaring.  That’s tens of millions less money spent at Missouri grocers every month. 

Possible case load restrictions would mean that for a new family to get SNAP and existing family would have to leave the program or be terminated.  (Take terminated and give points.)

Proposals to make states pay more of the overhead cost – and some of the benefit costs – especially hurt Missouri which already has legislated away billions of dollars in General Revenue each year. 

And, we still have to expand staff and increase resources to comply with that pesky federal court order.

Missouri really needs for the food stamp program to survive unchanged and get funding increased to reflect inflation, plus higher average food costs.  Don’t hold your breath.

Remember, Missouri has stopped the state income tax on capital gains, resulting in a projected income loss of $400 million to $600 million a year.  Those likely talked about shifts of food stamp costs to Jefferson City would require the state to invest $500 million a year in General Revenue to preserve food stamps at their current levels.

Missouri July 2025 Benefits

Temporary Assistance

          9,344 Children

          3,021 Parents

          12,365 Total  (down 5.5% from 7/24)

          $ 7.47 Average Benefit P{er Family Per Day

SNAP

          662,806 participants  (up 0.3% from 7/24)

          $2.12 Per Person Per Meal

MO HealthNet (Medicaid)

          1,275,350 covered   (down 5.3% from 7/24)

             572,308 Children  (down 9.3% from 7/24)

          $1,176.37 per patient overall

          $  397.90 per Managed Care patient  (Managed Care represents 79% of case load)

MO DSS  July 2025 Monthly Management Report

 

Good-Bye Mom

As many of you have heard, my mother passed away on August 13^th.  Patricia Harvey Koenen was one of the good people.  She was with us for 90 years, six months and six days.  Her last days were pretty horrible but all those she met will remember her smile, her humility, and her thankfulness.

Glenn