PONTIAC, Mich. — Nearly every week for the past year, 60-year-old Clifford Glenn has walked to All Saints Episcopal Church in Pontiac, Michigan, for a hot meal and a basket of groceries.
They aren’t all for him. Once Glenn returns home, he reserves some of the produce and nonperishables for himself and sets aside the rest for an elderly neighbor. He continues to help his neighbor by cooking fresh meals and cleaning the man’s house. In Glenn’s words, it’s “what I can give to him.”
But Glenn’s ability to help could soon change as new requirements for the benefits he receives from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program took effect on March 1.
“It’s been a little difficult for me,” he told Straight Arrow News.
Federal spending bill institutes changes in SNAP
The One Big Beautiful Bill President Donald Trump signed last July changed how the federal food stamps program operates. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which manages the food assistance program, about 39.5 million people receive benefits.
The spending law mandated people like Glenn work 80 hours a month to receive benefits. It also increased Michigan’s share of administrative costs by 50%, beginning this July. It’s a significant increase: Michigan will pay $95.7 million more in 2026 than in 2024.
Glenn is considered an “able-bodied adult without dependents,” since he is single, does not care for a child under the age of 14 and lives in an area with an unemployment rate below 10%. This group of able-bodied adults, sometimes referred to as ABAWD, is larger now than it was pre-July. The age of dependents has been lowered from 18 to 14, and new regulations have been added about how to measure unemployment for waivers.
The USDA said that, as of Nov. 2, the category of single adults must work or volunteer at least 80 hours a month. Otherwise, they can receive benefits for three months, then not again for another three years, for failing to meet the guidelines.
Implementing the new work requirements is a measured process, with some states complying on Nov. 1, while others, like Michigan, started on March 1. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to SAN’s interview requests.
“We know that people have lots of great skills and talents,” Matthew Dickerson, director of budget policy at the Economic Policy Innovation Center, told SAN. “The whole point of the welfare system should be to be able to transition people back into self-sufficiency and not permanent dependency on government.”
Eisha Branner runs E-Community Outreach Services, a Pontiac-based nonprofit focused on helping women and their families access communal support, food, diapers and other essentials. She told SAN that her staff has offered budgeting workshops, apprenticeship programs and other opportunities to help families transition off food stamps.
Anyone in the U.S. can seek an ABAWD waiver, but prior to the July bill, several states were granted geographical waivers, meaning single adults did not have to meet work requirements in certain areas to receive SNAP benefits.
A USDA spokesperson told SAN that the changes instituted from the spending bill took effect on July 4, and states must enforce the new three-month time limit rule. The spokesperson added the department is providing technical assistance to states on enforcing new time limit and work requirement rules, and transitioning residents off welfare.
“So Michigan — really for the first time because waivers are no longer as broadly an option for Michigan counties and cities — more people than ever are suddenly going to be experiencing lower food assistance budgets for their families or losing their SNAP benefits if they’re completely single altogether,” Elinor “Elly” Jordan, public benefits law attorney at the Michigan Poverty Law Program, told SAN.
Those changes mean Glenn could have less food to share with his neighbor. He uses his food stamps to make some purchases at Meijer, a midwestern grocery store, and supplements that with items from the Pontiac pantry.
“I try to help others, I’m just by myself,” he said.
Thousands likely lost benefits
Work waivers aren’t a foreign concept. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act carved out a path for waivers, which Dickerson said allows states to inform the USDA that certain residents cannot meet work rules.
The law allowed for a USDA secretary to approve geographic waivers based on whether a state, county or city “does not have a sufficient number of jobs to provide employment for the individuals.” The law did not have provisions on how long a waiver could last or which procedures a secretary must follow to terminate waivers.
“The problem with the law was that it never defined what the term ‘area’ meant and what the term ‘lack of sufficient jobs’ meant,” he said.
The 2025 changes make those waivers a temporary tool, allowing the USDA to review unemployment rates over a three-month and 12-month period and judge the rates based on historical numbers. Under the new law, waivers cannot exceed 12 months.
“These reforms reinforce SNAP’s work expectations and encourage able-bodied adults to move toward employment and self-sufficiency, consistent with the program’s statutory goals,” Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank, told SAN in an email.
It is unclear exactly how many food stamp recipients will be affected by the new rules. After ending its waiver on Sept. 1, 2025, Pennsylvania reported 161,000 fewer people received benefits in December 2025 compared with December 2024, according to the state’s Independent Fiscal Office. South Carolina said that 3% of its enrollees fall into the same category as Glenn. The Congressional Budget Office estimated provisions will reduce enrollment by about 2.4 million in an average month from 2025 to 2034.
Tabulating how many households are affected by the change is tricky as states do not report SNAP data in a uniform format. Some states release the total number of individual recipients, while others report the number of households, each of which could represent several recipients. Some states report both.
An SAN analysis of data from 10 states that instituted work requirements found that the number of households receiving benefits dropped by 408,869 in the first month of the requirement – a 12.6% decline.
In two states, Massachusetts and New Mexico, the number of households grew by 10,559 and 64, respectively.
Jordan said that SNAP benefits aren’t meant to help people stock their kitchens, rather to keep people above food-insecurity levels. In some cases, she said people could receive around $100 per person a month. Michigan averaged $184.75 per month for individuals and $343.88 for households so far in fiscal year 2026.
Unemployment rates force states to apply for exemptions
Counties, states and reservations across the nation are requesting waivers.
The entire state of Alaska, with the exception of Anchorage, has received such a waiver. The new rules exempt citizens of any federally-recognized tribe and Alaskan Natives from the work requirements. Alaska and Hawaii are automatically granted waivers if unemployment is 150% above the national rate, which was 4.1% in December, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Michigan’s Mackinac County received a waiver due to its 13.3% unemployment rate, the 10th highest in the nation, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. The city of Pontiac, where Glenn lives, is below the threshold at 8.6%.
Gina Plata-Nino, director of SNAP policy and advocacy at the Food Research and Action Center, told SAN that work requirements weren’t feasible as people are being “punished” for things out of their control, such as a “weak economy, insufficient jobs, lack of transportation and ways for them to be able to have access to resources.”
Glenn said the 80 hours a month requirement will be difficult for him, as jobs around Pontiac force people to “meet certain standards” to work. He noted there are jobs for people who are willing to take anything to make ends meet, but the time requirement feels high to him.
“I do more than 80 hours walking around, inquiring about work, than actually getting to work,” he told SAN.
Dickerson noted that the work requirements equate to being roughly 20 hours a week, which is a part-time job.
“It’s an incredibly modest requirement that can be easily met simply by going out and contributing to your community,” he said.
Glenn said in Pontiac, jobs are all around him, but may not always pay well enough. Michigan’s minimum wage is $13.73 per hour and Pontiac’s median income in 2024 was $44,329, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The city is marked by blighted, abandoned buildings as it faced a harsh economic downturn in the early 2000s.
Pontiac was so well known as an automobile manufacturing hub throughout the 20th century that General Motors named a car brand after the city. Then came the Great Recession: GM ceased operations for the Pontiac brand in 2009 and shuttered its four assembly plants in the city as part of a bankruptcy agreement.
Since then, the city has repurposed historic buildings and remains the marquee city for the annual Woodward Dream Cruise — a live auto showing of classic and original vehicles spanning the entire 27-mile Woodward Avenue connecting Detroit to Pontiac.
Still, Glenn said he’s seen people either leave Pontiac, or turn to substance abuse. He said that places around the city are aware of the city’s unemployment level and have offered job training sessions to help people.
“I do notice that a lot of people don’t want to do anything because they lost a lot of hope,” Glenn said. “I try to stay hopeful and encouraging like, ‘Hey, you can do it. Just take a little step.’”
Dickerson told SAN the work requirements would encourage people to seek higher-paying jobs and break cycles of welfare dependency. If able-bodied adults who don’t support others financially rely less on public assistance, Dickerson said more money could be provided to people who are “truly needy.”
Jordan told SAN she sees it differently: Most people aren’t cyclical recipients and instead use the program so they don’t go hungry, she said.
Community will be key for many people as they navigate the changes. Glenn said this is now a time for neighbors to help one another.
SNAP needed improvements
Everyone who spoke to SAN agreed that the nation’s food assistance program needed to be updated to meet the needs of both recipients and taxpayers, and also account for rising food costs. The disagreement comes in how these changes should be created.
Jordan envisioned the program being improved to allow for a fully digitized application process used in all states. Jordan said it can be easier to order a pizza from Domino’s than it is to apply for benefits.
“I would say that any fiscal effects are completely secondary to the human effects,” Dickerson said. “We want people to be able to go into the workforce and be able to provide for their families.”
Glenn’s sights are set on his neighbors, encouraging them to keep asking for help and employment around the city, even if they get rejected.
“Go to the next one,” he said. “Don’t stop asking.”
Freelance Photojournalist Kimberly Todd contributed to this report.