Keeping food on the table is a challenge for Richmond resident Tamika Spears. A stay-at-home mom who is disabled, she relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed her and her three children. With a wide range of diets, limited purchasing options, rising food costs, and other expenses, a typical trip to the store is tough to manage for her.

Now, with a $230 billion reduction in the farm budget under consideration in Congress, Spears is worried about the impact it could have on her and others who rely on the program.

“Nobody in the richest country on the planet should go hungry,” said Spears, whose monthly benefits recently dropped from $518 to $262 due to SNAP cuts. “It is thanks to SNAP that I can feed my kids, put myself through college, and be able to strengthen my family, but that will not be possible if Congress stays on track to cut SNAP.”

Spears’ concern was shared by advocates and state officials during a virtual press conference on the proposed cuts held last week by the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis.

A major part of the discussion was a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimating Virginia’s biennial budget would see a $352 million shortfall for SNAP benefits if cuts were approved and funding partly shifted to states.

Delegate Bonita Anthony said SNAP benefits could change greatly if Virginia had to take on a portion of overall costs.

Those changes would impact local farmers and the state food economy and could leave almost 827,800 Virginians enrolled in SNAP, according to the USDA, at risk of losing a vital resource.

“Nearly 40,000 Richmonders and nearly 30,000 Chesterfield residents rely on SNAP every single day,” Delegate Michael Jones said. “This program that has helped kids, to keep them from going hungry and being food insecure, and parents, from having to choose between rent, groceries, and medicine, that’s what’s at stake here.”

Jones, alongside others in the press conference, placed the blame for these proposed cuts at Congressional plans to renew tax cuts for the country’s wealthiest passed during the first Trump administration through $1.1 trillion in spending cuts.

If approved, members of the Commonwealth Institute proposed a change from Virginia’s flat tax rate to a “Fair Share tax” that would have a small portion of residents pay 10% on taxable income over $1 million to fund critical services.

State officials urged the public to contact their representatives and promised to explore ways to protect food access and assistance. Some, however, said reworking the state’s tax structure would be on the table if the cuts were approved, as SNAP wouldn’t be the only public service affected.

“We’re going to have to start talking about fairer taxes in Virginia,” Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke said. “In terms of people paying their fair share in taxes and how we redistribute those taxes in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in determining how we generate revenue.”