BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — More than 900,000 Alabamians experienced food insecurity in 2024, according to the latest county-level estimates from Feeding America, a figure that is gaining urgency as changes enacted by President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress reduce access to food assistance and raise health insurance costs.
Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap study, released in July, estimates that 17.8% of Alabama residents — more than 900,000 people — struggled to afford enough food in 2024. The figure is the newest available statewide estimate, though it measures conditions from two years ago.
The new data arrive as more than 80,000 Alabamians, including more than 23,000 children, lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits between July 2025 and May 2026, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The 11% decline followed the passage of Trump’s 2025 tax-and-spending law, commonly called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The law, H.R. 1, tightened SNAP eligibility rules, including by extending a time-limited work requirement to certain adults ages 55 through 64. For people subject to that requirement, SNAP benefits can be limited to three months in a three-year period unless they meet work, training or workfare requirements of at least 20 hours a week.
The law also narrowed exemptions from the work rule for some parents, veterans, former foster youth and people experiencing homelessness, while restricting states’ ability to waive the requirement in areas with weak job markets.
The food assistance at issue is often called food stamps and is delivered through an electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, card. The cards themselves are not being taken away; rather, people can lose eligibility for the benefits loaded onto them.
For Alabama, where low wages, poor health outcomes and rural poverty leave many families with little financial cushion, the changes could shift more of the burden to food banks and local charities. The Community Food Bank of Central Alabama has said food insecurity is at an all-time high in the Birmingham metro area, estimating that one in six residents in its service area faces food insecurity.
The federal law also transfers more SNAP costs and financial risk to states. Alabama officials have sought a two-year delay in provisions that could require the state to pay part of the benefit cost because of its program error rate. State officials estimated Alabama could face a $174.3 million annual cost beginning Oct. 1, 2027, unless its error rate falls below a specified threshold.
The SNAP changes are only part of a broader squeeze on low-income households.
Enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits expired at the end of 2025 after Congress did not renew them. The enhanced subsidies were not directly repealed by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; they were temporary pandemic-era assistance that Congress allowed to lapse. Still, their expiration occurred alongside the Republican-backed budget law and has increased health insurance costs for many people who buy coverage through the ACA marketplace.
KFF estimated that, without the enhanced subsidies, average out-of-pocket premium payments for subsidized marketplace enrollees would rise 114%, or about $1,016 a year. KFF also projected that older Alabama marketplace customers with incomes just above the former subsidy cutoff could face especially steep increases.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act does make separate, significant changes to Medicaid. It requires many adults covered through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid-expansion pathway to document 80 hours a month of work, school, job training or qualifying community engagement beginning Jan. 1, 2027, unless a state implements it earlier or receives a limited exemption.
Alabama has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, so the new Medicaid expansion work requirement does not apply here in the same way it does in expansion states. But Alabama residents who buy marketplace coverage are affected by the expired premium subsidies, and food banks could see rising demand as SNAP eligibility becomes more restrictive.
The major Medicaid work-reporting requirement is scheduled to begin after the November 2026 midterm election.
For advocates and families already relying on food pantries, the sequence is stark: newer data show hunger was widespread before the latest policy changes, while food aid and affordable health coverage have become harder to obtain since then.