Ryan Renger, a student at the University of Iowa’s College of Law, was shocked at how sharply grocery prices have increased after comparing his recent Walmart receipts to those from two years ago. While Renger himself has not had to worry about his next meal, he said he sees many of his classmates struggling to figure out how to pay for their groceries.
According to the Midwest region data from the Consumer Price Index released each month to track inflation, food prices are up 3.2 percent since August 2024 and continue to rise.
Renger recognized a unique difficulty of being a graduate student. With the rising cost of living, the responsibility of paying for school, rent, and groceries coupled with the inability to make a sustainable income as a full-time student, many are struggling to make ends meet.
“Nobody should have to cut the things they enjoy out of their food budget because food is the best thing in life,” Renger said.
At the UI, 38 percent of undergraduates and 32 percent of graduate students reported low or very low food security in 2025, according to the 2025 UI Basic Needs Assessment Report.
The stress of paying for groceries could be compounded by a decrease in access to federal food assistance programs for many Iowa families due to recent federal funding cuts.
The “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” which President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025, will slash $187 billion in federal food assistance funding over the next decade in an effort to pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts. The Iowa Hunger Coalition anticipates this will result in a $1 billion reduction in food assistance funding to Iowans over the next decade.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides federal food purchasing assistance to low-income individuals falling below the federal poverty level, which sits at $15,650 a year for an individual in 2025. To qualify for SNAP in Iowa, gross income must be at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level.
The cuts — coming in the form of eligibility restrictions, increased work requirements, and shifting financial responsibility to states — represent the largest funding cut in the program’s history.
Democrats and anti-hunger advocates say the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act” makes SNAP less accessible, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations while damaging the economy. Republicans who voted in favor of the bill say it strengthens the SNAP program while reducing wasteful government spending.
Iowa Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, said there are many “hidden faces” of food insecurity, which include students. She said SNAP allows individuals to get back on their feet after difficult times and cutting the program is “extremely short-sighted for the future of our country and our state.”
“We are supposed to be the state that feeds the world,” Weiner said. “How is it that we can’t feed our own people?”
Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-Windor Heights, said cutting SNAP will result in more individuals relying on charity programs, such as food pantries, for meals.
“It is going to be devastating for our state,” she said. “The food pantries are already stretched thin.”
Trone Garriott works as the coordinator of interfaith engagement at the Des Moines Area Religious Council, or DMARC, which operates a large food pantry network in the Des Moines area.
Both U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, along with all four of Iowa’s U.S. House Representatives, voted in favor of the funding cuts in the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
“Senator Ernst is working to improve and bring back integrity to the outdated and mismanaged SNAP system to ensure benefits are getting to hungry families who need them — not scammers or ineligible bureaucrats,” an Ernst spokesperson said in a statement to The Daily Iowan.
Grassley said he supported the reconciliation bill because it extends tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, expands the Clean Fuels Production Tax Credit, and reduces wasteful government spending within Medicaid and SNAP programs.
“We delay costly regulations that hurt patients and providers, especially those living in rural America,” Grassley said in a Senate floor speech on June 30. “We stop Medicaid and Medicare resources from going to illegal aliens. Most importantly, we preserve the Medicaid program for those who most need it.”
Food insecurity expected to increase in Iowa
As federal SNAP cuts increase the likelihood of reduced food assistance spending by $1 billion over the next decade, Iowa food pantries expect to continue seeing increased foot traffic as food insecurity rises in the state.
Food pantries throughout the Iowa City area and around the state have seen a steady increase in visitors over the past few years.
The Coralville Food Pantry has reported a 22 percent increase in traffic from August 2024 to August 2025, according to data provided by the pantry. The pantry is not alone — North Liberty Community Food Pantry served 1,082 households in 2024, and the pantry has already served 1,097 so far in 2025.
Luke Elzinga, chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition, which advocates against hunger in Iowa, said he has seen a record increase in food pantry usage around the state.
Meanwhile, a decrease in food provided to pantries has strained funds and resources for pantries. Kim Guardado, director for the food reservoir at Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, or HACAP, a food bank which distributes to the North Liberty and Coralville food pantries, said it has seen a decrease in food provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA.
“As we look forward to a potential influx, we are all concerned about the level of strain that could be put onto an already strained system,” Guardado said in a statement to the DI.
While food pantries are already struggling, cuts to food assistance could push them to the brink as charities attempt to fill the gaps left by dwindling food assistance spending. Elzinga expects pantries to continue to break records as the effects of cuts to food assistance programs are exacerbated by rising grocery prices.
Trone Garriott said food assistance cuts will increase stress for Iowans who have already had to change what can fit in their grocery budget due to rising prices.
“If [the state of Iowa] cuts SNAP benefits, that means the folks who are getting a little bit of relief from those SNAP benefits are now going to be entirely seeking help from the charity programs,” Trone Garriott said.
Annette Hacker, chief communications and strategy officer at Food Bank of Iowa, which provides food to 700 meal sites across 55 counties in Iowa, said SNAP is the most effective hunger relief program.
“For every meal a Feeding America Food Bank can provide, SNAP provides nine,” Hacker said.
However, the federal SNAP program does not help many of the people who need food assistance in Iowa.
Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the nation, estimated one in eight Iowans face food insecurity in 2025, while one in seven people face food insecurity nationally. The same study found among those who are food insecure, only 39 percent qualify for SNAP benefits.
Iowa Hunger Coalition estimates 23,000 Iowans will see their SNAP benefits eliminated or reduced out of the 272,818 Iowans on SNAP.
Changing the rules
There are already two work reporting requirements provided by the USDA to qualify for food assistance. These rules require food assistance recipients to be actively searching for employment, work, or be involved in a training program at least 80 hours a month for adults aged 18 to 54. Those who do not meet work requirements are only eligible for three months of benefits every three years.
With the reconciliation bill, the work requirements have expanded to adults aged 55 to 64, parents with children 14 and older, veterans, the unhoused, and those aging out of foster care.
The USDA confirmed states should implement new work reporting requirments on Nov. 1, according to the USDA’s website.
Iowa Hunger Coalition estimates, based on Congressional Budget Office models, expanding work requirements alone will result in $252 million in lost funding over the next decade to Iowa.
Data from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services shows able-bodied adults only make up 3 percent of households receiving benefits. Elzinga said the requirements discount the nuance surrounding the reasons people struggle to find consistent employment.
He said the statistic explains work requirements don’t encourage Iowans to find employment; rather, they form a barrier for food-insecure people trying to find stability.
“Nutrition support actually helps people find and maintain employment when you know your nutritional needs are being met,” Elzinga said.
Elzinga said critics of the looser, previous work requirements argue people would intentionally live off SNAP so they don’t have to work, which Elzinga said would not be possible.
He added that benefits average $6 per day.
“It does help relieve some financial stress for families as they are trying to find employment — families that are struggling and may have barriers preventing them from finding employment,” he said.
Additional work reporting requirements means additional paperwork for SNAP applicants. Elzinga referenced this as a potential “ordeal mechanism,” or method of intentionally making programs or services harder to access, with the idea that only the most needy will go through with the burdensome process to receive
assistance.
Elzinga said he has talked to individuals at food pantries who decided the application process was too much of a hassle or too confusing for people to know how to maintain benefits. Bobst had similar experiences at the North Liberty pantry.
“Years of added red tape and unnecessary verification checks have become so burdensome that a program intended to feed people is woefully underutilized,” North Liberty Food Pantry Executive Director Ryan Bobst said in a statement to the DI.
While 932 households served by the North Liberty Food Pantry have been SNAP eligible in 2025, only 233 are participating in the program.
According to the SNAP map from Iowa Hunger Coalition, 17.46 percent of the SNAP-eligible population is not enrolled in the program.
In addition to increasing work requirements, state governments will have to shoulder additional administrative burden and expenses to maintain the program.
SNAP is funded by the USDA, but it is administered by individual states. Currently, Iowa and the federal government split administrative costs 50-50. Starting fiscal year 2027, beginning Oct. 1, 2026, states will take on an additional 25 percent of the cost.
Iowa Hunger Coalition estimates the shift will cost the state an estimated $13 to $15 million per fiscal year. The state will be faced with a budget gap as a result, leaving an uncertain future and potential for even greater cuts to the SNAP program at the state level.
Economic impacts of SNAP cuts
UI economics professor Anne Villmil said SNAP benefits have a multiplier effect on the state economy. In Iowa, it is estimated every dollar spent on SNAP benefits equals $1.54 in economic activity.
“When people get [SNAP] payments, they go to the grocery store and they buy more, and then that filters on elsewhere in the economy,” Villmil said.
Villmil said not only will grocery stores suffer, but SNAP cuts will pose a supply and demand problem within the state.
“When cuts occur, demand for food banks will go up, the economy slows, and there are fewer donations [to food banks],” she said.
Villmil said cuts will not only impact SNAP recipients, but all of Iowa, as the program has provided an economic stimulus for the state.
Elzinga said, historically, SNAP enrollment peaks when there is an economic downturn and dips when the economy improves.
“SNAP is at a 17-year low in the state of Iowa right now, and we have food banks and food pantries breaking records,” Elzinga said.