About 40,000 Nebraskans no longer receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, advocates say. The drop follows a wave of federal and state policy changes, including new work requirements and verification paperwork, that advocates say have pushed out veterans, children, immigrants and families already struggling to get by.
Eric Savaiano, food and nutrition access program manager at Nebraska Appleseed, said the losses stem mostly from stricter work requirements and the paperwork tied to them, according to Nebraska Public Media. Nebraska Appleseed hosted an online press conference where advocates and two former SNAP beneficiaries called on state leaders to reverse the losses and undo state-level changes they described as unnecessary and harmful, per the York News-Times. The event took place on Oct. 20, 2026, the one-year anniversary of Nebraska's policy changes. The bill had passed in July 2025, the paper reported.
A Veteran's Housing Win Turns Into a Food Fight
Joan Jakoubek, a Navy veteran and mother of two who recently experienced homelessness, secured housing through the Department of Veterans Affairs and had been exempt from SNAP work requirements because of her past military service. That exemption disappeared under the federal overhaul. She was working 15 hours a week and said she would have needed to quit her job and find employment with better hours just to meet her mobility needs, according to the York News-Times.
Jakoubek said her family had to live in a hotel during a crisis. She now struggles to afford groceries without SNAP, she told the paper. Her situation echoes a broader pattern described by Nebraska Public Media: the federal law eliminated SNAP work-requirement exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness and former foster youth.
An Omaha Resident Loses SNAP
Rahmatullah Safari of Omaha discussed losing SNAP benefits, according to the York News-Times. Nebraska Public Media separately reported that refugees were also barred from accessing benefits under the changes.
The Numbers Behind the Decline
State data cited by the York News-Times put the overall decrease at about 40,000 people, matching Nebraska Appleseed's estimate that roughly 40,000 Nebraskans have lost SNAP benefits this year, as reported by KETV. Other measurements tell a related but distinct story: Nebraska Public Media reported that about 17,000 Nebraska households, representing 37,000 individuals, no longer participated in SNAP, and that household participation dropped about 11% between April 2025 and April 2026. The outlet also found that household participation fell about 23% between October 2025 and August 2026.
The Nebraska Examiner has tracked the month-to-month damage closely. It reported that Nebraska had nearly 33,000 fewer SNAP participants in July 2026 than in July 2025, a decline of nearly 22%, and that the state's participation numbers have recorded back-to-back monthly record drops since Nebraska began releasing public SNAP data in 2014. The sharpest single-month decline came between May and June, when participation fell by nearly 6,000 — the steepest drop since at least 2014, per the same outlet.
Children have also lost benefits. The Nebraska Examiner found that about half of the state's annual participation decline involved youth and teens under age 19, with infants and children under 5 accounting for 13% of the decline.
What Changed Under the Federal Law
H.R. 1 lifted SNAP work-requirement exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness and former foster children, and raised the age limit for work requirements to 64 years, according to the York News-Times. CBS News also reported on the expanded work requirements. Nebraska Public Media reported that the changes applied to able-bodied adults ages 55 to 64 and people with dependents age 14 and older.
Supporters of the legislation said the restrictions would cut government spending; projections called for a $186 billion reduction in SNAP spending over a decade, per the York News-Times.
Verification Paperwork and State Response
Nebraska implemented new eligibility-verification requirements for all SNAP applicants in May, according to the Nebraska Examiner. Savaiano said the state's added verification paperwork caused confusion, SNAP losses and administrative inefficiencies, the York News-Times reported — a claim consistent with KETV's reporting that additional state verification requirements have made it harder for people to maintain their benefits. The strain has shown up in processing times and call volumes: the Nebraska Examiner reported that the average time to process an expedited SNAP application exceeded five days in June, up from just over three days in May and nearly three days in April, while calls to state customer-service centers handling SNAP and other economic-assistance benefits topped 80,000 in June, compared with about 61,000 the month before.
H.R. 1 also requires states to cover federal program costs if their payment error rates exceed 6%. Nebraska's error rate was 5.9% in fiscal year 2025, Nebraska Public Media reported, putting it just below that threshold — a point Savaiano confirmed, per the York News-Times. Even so, Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services estimated $17 million in additional costs in the coming fiscal year, according to Nebraska Public Media. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has said separately that it is rolling out changes tied to new federal requirements, with a set of eligibility changes that took effect on October 20, 2025.
The state agency said it was monitoring participation trends and impacts, according to the York News-Times. Advocates called for changes to SNAP, the paper reported.
Food Banks Feel the Overflow
Nebraska food banks have faced increased demand, according to Nebraska Public Media. The state's food banks combined served 2.7 million duplicate individuals in the most recent fiscal year, a 45% increase from five years earlier, the outlet reported. Food Bank for the Heartland has noted that for every meal a food bank can provide, SNAP provides nine — a ratio that underscores why advocates worry food banks cannot fully absorb the shortfall left by shrinking SNAP rolls.
