A major restructuring of federal food assistance is now reaching kitchen tables across Oregon, where approximately 35,000 people have already lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and hundreds of thousands more are moving through eligibility reviews that could determine whether their assistance continues.
The changes are being felt from Portland to the Rogue Valley as Oregon implements provisions of H.R. 1, the sweeping federal law enacted in July 2025. Expanded work requirements, narrower exemptions and additional eligibility rules have altered the SNAP program for adults who previously qualified under different standards. For Oregon, where hundreds of thousands of residents rely on SNAP to purchase groceries each month, implementation has become a statewide undertaking involving families, state agencies, employers, grocery retailers, WorkSource centers and a network of food banks already reporting increased demand.
Gov. Tina Kotek met Saturday, Aug. 15, with affected families, state officials and food assistance organizations at the Northeast Emergency Food Program operated by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon in Portland. The roundtable placed the experiences of households losing assistance alongside the operational challenges confronting organizations expected to help feed people when SNAP benefits disappear.
The approximately 35,000 Oregonians who have lost benefits represent only those affected so far. The Oregon Department of Human Services previously estimated that approximately 310,000 adults would need to be evaluated to determine whether the expanded federal work requirements apply to them. Earlier this year, SNAP was serving approximately 757,700 Oregonians, equivalent to about one out of every six residents in the state.
For thousands of those recipients, continued eligibility now depends on a different set of federal rules.
Adults ages 18 through 64 who do not have a child younger than 14 included on their SNAP case may be required to complete at least 80 hours each month of employment or another qualifying activity. Paid employment, self-employment, volunteering and certain employment and training programs can satisfy the requirement. Without an exemption, recipients who fail to meet the standard generally can receive SNAP for only three months during the current three-year period extending from January 2025 through December 2027.
The federal law also removed categorical exemptions previously provided to veterans, people experiencing homelessness and young adults who aged out of foster care. Other exemptions continue for qualifying circumstances that can include pregnancy, physical or behavioral health limitations, receipt of disability income, caregiving responsibilities, school attendance and participation in certain treatment programs. Federal law also provides exemptions for certain American Indian and Alaska Native people and others meeting specified Tribal eligibility standards.
That combination of requirements makes communication with ODHS increasingly important. An exemption may depend on information contained in an individual case, and recipients who believe they qualify are encouraged to report their circumstances rather than assume the state already has everything necessary to determine their status.
The rules carry particular significance in Southern Oregon because neither Josephine nor Jackson County is covered by Oregon’s current geographic exemption from the SNAP work requirements. Seven counties without WorkSource centers, Crook, Gilliam, Jefferson, Lake, Morrow, Sherman and Wheeler, currently receive that treatment. Residents of Josephine and Jackson counties who fall within the affected population must satisfy the federal requirements or establish that an individual exemption applies.
That means a federal policy change can translate directly into a smaller monthly grocery budget for a household in Grants Pass, Medford, Cave Junction, Central Point or another Rogue Valley community. It can also shift demand from grocery stores toward food pantries and charitable organizations that operate under an entirely different financial structure.
SNAP places purchasing power directly into the hands of eligible households, allowing benefits to be used at authorized retailers. Food banks must instead obtain food, transport it, warehouse it and distribute it through community locations. Losing one system does not automatically create additional capacity within the other.
Evidence of that pressure is already appearing. Oregon Food Bank officials participating in Saturday’s discussion reported that demand had increased 51 percent since January while federal assistance available for purchasing food had declined 20 percent. Food providers have described longer lines and growing pressure on inventories as more households seek assistance.
Oregon is also spending substantial state money simply to carry out the federal changes. State lawmakers approved approximately $111 million from the General Fund and 392 positions during the 2026 legislative session to begin implementing H.R. 1 requirements affecting SNAP and Medicaid. Those resources support eligibility workers, technology, verification and exemption processing and administrative expenses increasingly being shifted to states.
The eligibility process itself has become more involved. Since June 1, all Oregon SNAP households have been required to complete an interview when applying for or renewing benefits. Pandemic-era flexibility that allowed some households to renew without interviews ended May 31, adding another required step for recipients navigating the system.
For people who must satisfy the work standard, Oregon’s 37 WorkSource centers can provide employment assistance, training and access to activities that may count toward the monthly requirement. People who lose SNAP because they fail to meet the work standard may also be able to regain benefits by subsequently satisfying the requirement or establishing an exemption.
The numbers now facing Oregon show why implementation will continue well beyond the first 35,000 benefit losses. Approximately 310,000 adults were identified for evaluation, meaning individual SNAP cases will continue moving through the new rules as applications and renewals are processed.
In Southern Oregon, those decisions will unfold household by household rather than arriving as a single statewide change. Some recipients will meet the work requirement, some will qualify for exemptions and others may lose assistance. Food banks and community organizations will simultaneously have to determine how much additional demand they can absorb as federal benefits disappear from some household budgets.
For SNAP recipients in Josephine and Jackson counties, understanding the new requirements has become an immediate part of maintaining food assistance. Keeping employment and qualifying activity information current, completing required interviews, responding to ODHS notices and reporting circumstances that may qualify for an exemption can now determine whether benefits continue.
Oregon has entered the next stage of a federal SNAP overhaul that reaches considerably farther than the 35,000 people who have already lost assistance. With hundreds of thousands of cases still subject to evaluation and food providers reporting sharply higher demand, the effects of the new system will continue emerging across the state, including here in the Rogue Valley, one household and one eligibility decision at a time.