Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Welcome back to Just A Bite. It's Hope Lane Gavin, the Ohio association of Food Banks Director of Nutrition Policy and Programs on the MIC today. As you may remember from previous years or if you follow us online, our many, many social media posts, September is Hunger Action Month. In fact, today is Hunger Action Day for those of you tuning in for the very first time. The Ohio association of Food Banks created Just A Bite over four years ago to help us communicate in an increasingly digital world about our programming and policy priorities, as well as to highlight our network, our partners and our staff for their tireless commitment and dedication to a food secure Ohio.
As we shared in our August episode, the association staff have been booked and busy this year between the state budget and the federal reconciliation process and the POD had to take a backseat. But we are back and better than ever and excited to continue sharing with you all what we've been up to in a time of great noise and confusion. We remain committed to clarity, truth and depth on behalf of the people relying on us for help meeting their basic needs and our hunger champions advocating on their behalf. Our fearless leader Jordan Avotney will once again be our special guest, joining me today to chat about how the recently passed HR1, a reconciliation or OBBBA one big beautiful bill act will impact our network and the neighbors we serve. Listen on to hear more.
Hello and happy Hunger Action Month to all who celebrate. My name is Hope Lane Gavin and I'm your host for today's episode of Just a Bite where we'll pick up where we left off last month on catching you up from our brief hiatus in August, our fearless and very tired Executive Director Jorie Novotny joined us and walked us through where Ohio's 2026 and 2027 biennium operating budget landed for not just our Food Bank Network, but our health and human service sector as a whole. Jorie is back with us this month to give us a similar overview of where HR1, aka reconciliation, aka obbb, aka the one big beautiful bill act landed and how that will impact our network and the neighbors that we serve.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me this Hunger Action Month and thanks everybody for listening.
Let's. Let's get to it.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Perfect. Let's dive in. So Dori, help our listeners make sense of what exactly is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. I, like many of our listeners, have heard it referred to as many different words, many different phrases, many different acronyms. Are these just a bunch of words that all mean the annual federal budget or is not quite that simple.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: It's not quite that simple. And you know what? The annual federal budget process itself isn't really not quite that simple any longer. But I won't belabor that too much in this conversation.
The One Big Beautiful Bill act was a name given to a legislative vehicle that was driven through a process called budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation is a tool that lawmakers in Congress can use in a limited number of times.
They have to meet certain thresholds and approach the budget reconciliation process in a certain way. But the appeal of budget reconciliation is that that legislation can be passed with a simple majority in the Senate rather than the traditional 60 votes that are needed for most other legislative vehicles. Usually, but not always, budget reconciliation generates deficit reduction or cost savings.
So it's a process where budget builders send down ceilings and then committees have to build budgets that meet or and don't exceed those ceilings. Ultimately, that all rolled up into a giant legislative vehicle that was called the One Big Beautiful bill Act, also HR1. Those are all the same thing. We've been referring to it as budget reconciliation, but probably from here on out, we're going to call it HR1.
Simplest way of referencing it as we go forward in this conversation and in the months and years ahead on implementation.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, that makes sense. And that's incredibly grounding for this conversation. So throughout our efforts this year to educate our audiences, our colleagues, our coalition folks about impacts, we have struggled to quickly explain exactly what this process is and how it differs from other legislation like the Farm Bill, or like you said, the official budget process or the appropriations process.
So level setting that these terms are all kind of synonymous. And referring to the same thing is helpful to keeping these things straight. So with that said, Jory, we have talked at length on the POD over the years on how exactly Ohio food banks get their food.
We've talked state funded food programs. We've talked a bit about the Emergency Food Assistance Program or tfab. We even had an episode featuring our partners with the Local Food Purchase assistance program, or LFPA.
So did the One Big Beautiful Bill act, or HR1, like you said, impact any of our food sourcing programs at all?
[00:05:12] Speaker A: No, not for the most part.
The way that this budget reconciliation process was approached was to essentially call for major cost reductions, cost savings from a variety of committees, including the Agriculture Committee. So we had members of the Agriculture Committee who had been going through a process for more than two years of listening in their communities and their districts across the country and with stakeholders on how to really build, you know, a strong bipartisan farm bill. Unfortunately, most of those forward thinking investment opportunities that were getting some momentum in the traditional farm bill process were not included in this budget reconciliation process. I mean, I do want to say there were some positive conversations during House Agriculture Committee markup in particular around the local food purchase assistance program or something like it. There was, you know, widespread appreciation for that temporarily funded program that was terminated earlier this year and would really need permanent funding and permanent authorization to continue.
That didn't ultimately get across the finish line in the budget reconciliation process. That was not the intent of the, of the leadership moving that package through the legislative process. But we're hopeful that that momentum continues outside of the reconciliat process.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: That's really helpful context. You're really good at like breaking it down. I always say that, like Jory can explain, like food banking for Dummies, like she should have really wrote the book.
I don't know what happened to those, like for Dummies, like books. Do you guys remember those?
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Oh yeah, the bright yellow ones.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Grocery store in the aisle. What happened to those?
[00:06:51] Speaker A: I don't know. Google, I guess. Yeah, I know, you're right.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: No, those were like really popular. Like they would explain anything.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Anyway, so. Yeah, okay. So overall, food banking itself was not at the forefront of the policy debates over the last several months.
But talk to me about the HR1's impact on our neighbors we serve and some of our like, root cause programming that we've highlighted and spoken at length on the POD over the years about the importance of Medicaid and connecting our low income neighbors with SNAP and food stamps and other programs like that. We've spoken at length to and about our neighbors that are participating in SNAP and still must come to us for assistance when the benefit doesn't stretch far enough. So let's talk about that.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Yeah, let's get into that. That's really where the meat of the reconciliation process and our involvement in it and where we were paying attention really rests. So just level setting. First of all, the major goal of budget reconciliation was to secure hundreds of billions of dollars in cost savings in several social service programs.
There was no way around that. The committees of jurisdiction that oversee Medicaid and SNAP were given math that they couldn't make work unless they really made significant changes to eligibility for those programs and how those programs are operated.
So this was a major, substantial change to social service programs as we have come to know them over three decades since welfare reform in the mid-90s.
On the snap side, it fundamentally changes Forever the guarantee of federally funded nutrition assistance if you find yourself facing hard times.
So it, for the first time will require states that don't meet pretty challenging error rate thresholds, administrative management thresholds for operating their program, to then pay for a share of the benefits themselves.
In Ohio's case, if they have the current error rate that they have now, which means mistaken unintentional overpayments or underpayments of benefit amounts based on a really complicated calculation that determines those SNAP benefits, then Ohio could be facing more than $300 million a year in its share of benefits for the first time. That's not something that states have ever had to budget for. It gets really challenging for states to be able to try and anticipate what kind of resources they're going to need. Because SNAP is cyclical. SNAP responds in a greater way when we hit an economic recession. So for states that have to balance their budgets if they encounter an economic recession, when folks are trying to turn towards SNAP more than usual, they're going to actually have to potentially provide more funding that they don't have coming in in tax receipts to keep SNAP benefits level. So that's one major change that will be coming in a couple of years as the implementation calendar for all of HR1's changes take place. So that's going to be October 1st of 2027.
Okay, October 1st of 2026, we're going to see a change where states have to pay for more of the cost of operating the program. So SNAP is the most complicated, arguably the most complicated public benefit to administer. You have to both meet a gross income test and a net income test. There are a variety of very specific deductions. And you have to account for all of a household's income down to the letter, right? Literally down to the penny, or else you're contributing to this artificial sort of error rate that ultimately harms the program's sustainability. So, so states will have to, for the first time, pay for 75% of operating the program, and the feds will pay for the other 25%. Unlike historically, again, for 30 years it's been a 50, 50 split. So that's another tens of millions of dollars that the state of Ohio, just our state, will have to come up with to continue to operate the program and operate it well, right? Operate it as we all desire it to be operated so that people have access when they need it, that they're getting the exact benefit amount that they're eligible for, that we're protecting access to those benefits, and that we're being there for people when they're facing budget shortfalls. That's what SNAP is really designed to do. This changes in SNAP also changed several other eligibility factors.
So it expanded work reporting requirements.
Right now, until the changes from HR1 go into effect.
Adults up to age 54 are subject to work reporting requirements, meaning that when they go and they apply for SNAP at the point of application, they have to prove where they're working, how much they're working, what they're earning. Right. And then if anything about that changes that would change their eligibility amount, they would need to come back and report it again. And they need to maintain employment to maintain their eligibility for snap. They can only get snap, SNAP for up to three months out of every three years without having secured new work. So if you experience a layoff, maybe you're able to get by for a little while before you apply for snap because you have a little bit of emergency savings, which by the way is pretty rare unfortunately. And then you eventually find yourself, okay, well, I can't afford to lose my car because I need it to get to work, so I need to keep making that payment. And I can't afford to change apartments because my lease is another six months. The only place I can find savings is on food. I really need some help. You go and get help, you can get it for three months without finding more work.
So that work requirement has been expanded under HR1 up to age 64.
So our older workers that often are facing age related discrimination in the workplace and in the world of hiring are going to face those work reporting requirements, as well as parents with children 14 and up. For the first time, children under 18 in that kind of high school category.
Their family may lose grocery benefits should their parents not secure the adequate amount of employment or participate in a qualified work experience program to basically work off their hours. There were some other exemptions also that existed that will go away. Veterans will no longer be exempt from those work reporting requirements. Youth aging out of foster care, homeless individuals will all newly be subjected to those work reporting requirements. That adds a lot of administrative complexity again. So that's a lot more touches that have to be made, which costs more for the state. Right. And the state is now going to have to be responsible for 75% of every person that they have monitoring that call center, every person who's processing all of those paperwork touches. So it kind of has a snowball effect similarly on the Medicaid side. And you know, we really care about access to affordable health care coverage because we know, that's so interlinked in so many ways with food security.
Medicaid is also facing a variety of really significant changes in eligibility as well as changes in how the program is funded. And I'm not going to go into that too much because I'm sure we'll reference some other resources you can find in our show, notes around details around Medicaid cuts. But I'll say also, not only were there changes in reconciliation around Medicaid, but also for folks who are accessing paid health insurance through the health insurance marketplace, the expanded premium tax credits that had been available for folks who are self employed, small business owners, you know, who are gig workers who aren't being offered employer provided coverage, make too much to qualify for Medicaid and have to go out and buy health insurance through the marketplace, they're going to see their premium skyrocket. Right. For them to be able to continue to maintain health insurance for some of them, they're of course going to just raise their hands and go back to being uninsured, risking, you know, much worse medical debt potentially.
And we know that health insurance again is, it's a big economy that is impacted. Every person who relies on health insurance, all of us, including those that secure it through employer provided coverage, are going to see increases in the cost of their health insurance as these changes continue to take place and roll out. So that's just on SNAP and Medicaid a lot to chew off. And I know we can't get into all of it, but yeah, there's a, there's a lot coming over the next couple of years that are going to really substantially change how we think about resources for families.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: So what I'm hearing from you is that while food banking policy and food bank policy was not directly impacted by H R1, you deeply anticipate more people needing help from us as a result of its passage. I think the Congressional Budget Office itself estimates 3 million fewer Americans will receive SNAP benefits over the next several years. And we already know from the various surveying that we've done as associations and also what the data shows us around snap's purchasing power already is significantly declining. With food inflation and various other things, people will be needing more help from us. And it's estimated about 3 million fewer Americans will receive SNAP benefits within the next several years. So thanks, Rory, for laying that all out for us. But I'm curious, now that the bill has passed, what's next?
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we're gonna definitely remain committed, of course, to doing everything we can to make sure. That people who are facing budget shortfalls have somewhere to turn when they're needing help.
That is a mission that I know our members and our local partners remain more committed to than ever. You know, I will say the reality is that even before these changes from HR1 go into effect, people in Ohio and across the country are experiencing a lot of stress related to managing their budgets and affording their basic needs. You know, I was really struck by a recent study that we'll reference in the show notes that found about half of American adults identify the cost of groceries as a major source of financial stress. And nearly one in five of them have used so called buy now, pay later services to buy their groceries.
Okay. And I don't know, it just breaks my heart, Right.
I know that what we know about groceries and you've heard me say this many times, so I'll just repeat myself again. Food is the thing that no one's going to come and collect a bill on. Right. So as you are managing your family's budget for a little while, you see that rent go up or your property taxes go up, okay, maybe I can pick up an extra shift at work. Then you see your utilities creep up, you're seeing costs for like maintaining car insurance go up, you're seeing the cost of child care go up every six months when you're re enrolling your children, you're seeing all of these household expenses creep up, creep up. There's only so much you can do to stretch what you have and then you start looking at where you can cut. Food is the thing that is most easily cut out of that, that budget, unfortunately. So when we see more and more people facing food budget shortfalls and experiencing a lot of chronic stress related to affording the food that they need, we know that it's going to be really hard for them to unbury themselves from that situation. So that's when we become instead of an episodic source of help. When someone faces one shortfall, let's say they have a car repair that they need and they didn't have the savings to, you know, get that flat fixed or you know, repair that engine to keep that car going, okay, they come to us a couple times, they get some groceries to stretch, they pay off that bill at the mechanics and they're back on their feet and they're able to make ends meet on their own.
These are more and more situations where folks are experiencing month after month shortfalls in what they can afford because their wages just aren't keeping up. With increases across the board. You know, we've seen food prices themselves jump much faster than they would traditionally.
And we see, of course, other inflation continue to outpace wages. Right. And outpace traditional rates of inflation. All of that is putting a lot of downward pressure on families that are living on fixed budgets. You know, in terms of what happens next in the aftermath of HR1, we are already concerned about our food supply. So we're going to keep talking about the food that we need and how our partners in government can be part of the solution. There's and we're gaining traction there. You know, the USDA has announced additional bonus purchases of TFAT product that will come late in the fall, early winter, start hitting our warehouses. We're gonna need more investments like that from our partners in government to keep food on our shelves. And then we're gonna try and be really active, engaged and trusted partners in educating Ohioans about what they need to know, about how their benefits are changing, how they can maintain eligibility and continue as a sector to wrap services around them to help get out of our lines and achieve the economic stability that they each deserve. It hasn't changed our mission, of course, or our focus, but it has certainly accelerated our urgency.
And we'll be here to keep working hard on that hope.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Jori, when you were talking about basically financing groceries, I'm sure, Sarah, you've seen a lot online of millennials just joking around like recession indicators. And so when a couple months ago, like door dash made it so that you could finance your door dash McDonald's, it's so sad. It's truly a recession indicator. It's truly like an indicator of the state of the world where, like, people literally have to finance a $20 McDonald's meal in addition to formula and other things. And it's also very sad because these are our basic needs. And financing a car and a house is one thing, but people are legitimately having to finance their kids school clothes and their formula. So.
But even with all that, said Jori, as always, a positive outlook and perspective is truly much needed during these uncertain times.
Before we close today, I don't want to lose sight of Hunger Action Month. In light of everything you shared today, can you share a couple opportunities our listeners should consider taking this month to raise awareness and encourage action against hunger? Especially now in light of everything you just shared about the state of food banking, of the SNAP program, of nutrition access in this state and in this.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Country, you know, in some respects, it's the easiest thing in the world to remain positive about this because we had like 100,000 different people in the state volunteer just at our 12 food bank warehouses last year.
People in Ohio simply care about each other, so that keeps all of us going every day and it keeps the food moving in and out as efficiently and effectively as possible.
We are so grateful for everyone that chooses to spend some time volunteering at a local food bank or food pantry, starting a donation drive, you know, simple as doing a little competition around the office.
We often encourage people to focus on monetary donations because we can usually buy food cheaper than you can at the grocery store. We are so grateful for any way in which you can support our mission and help us stretch our dollars. This is the month of wearing orange.
Not only on Hunger Action Day, but along the whole month. There's so many local opportunities to get involved. Please Visit our website, OhioFoodbanks.org, click find you'd food bank on our website. Then go to your county.
You'll be able to find your local food bank. If you're not familiar with them, and I guarantee you they have something really fun going on this month or in the months to come. As we look ahead at the winter holiday season, there's something for everybody. Volunteer, go to a special event, help them fundraise, spread the word about how important it is that we all link hands and continue to show up. You know, stay with us, okay? We're going to keep needing you and we're so grateful for you. Thank you.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: That brings us to the end of this episode of Just the Bite, conveniently titled One Big Busy Year. I was very pleased with myself for coming up with that title. As always, please don't forget to check out our show notes for additional materials and resources, including actions to take this month in honor of Hunger Action Month. Thank you for listening. And don't forget to subscribe.
