(Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families)
Low-income Arkansas families encounter too many barriers to access nutrition assistance, including low ceilings on participants’ income and assets, according to a report Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families released Thursday.
More than 400,000 Arkansans, about 13% of the state’s population, relied on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2023, according to the report. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers the program.
Only 69% of eligible Arkansans were enrolled in SNAP in 2020, the third-lowest participation rate of any state that year, according to USDA data.
SNAP-eligible Arkansans currently must have a gross income below 130% of the federal poverty guidelines — currently $19,578 for an individual and $40,560 for a family of four — and a net income below 100% of this threshold. The report states that 21% of the state’s roughly 3 million people meet the 130% limit.
In addition to income limits, SNAP’s eligibility requirements include work participation for adult enrollees, a $3,000 resource limit and cooperation with child support enforcement, if applicable.
These requirements impede Arkansans’ ability to apply for SNAP benefits and maintain enrollment, hindering their ability to overcome food insecurity, AACF Race Equity Director Maricella Garcia wrote in the report and said in a Thursday afternoon webinar.
Arkansas has the highest prevalence of food insecurity in the nation, at nearly 19% in 2023, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released in September. The report defines food insecurity as being unable, at some time during the year, to provide adequate food for one or more household members because of a lack of resources.
Food insecurity for Arkansas children is higher at 24.2%, which accounts for more than 168,000 children, according to Feeding America.
Poor nutrition can lead to a range of health problems for children, sometimes even before birth, and follow them into adulthood, such as heart disease, diabetes and iron-deficient anemia, the report states.
“As we fail year after year to address these statistics among our kids, what we’re doing is building a new generation of adults who are growing up with these long-term health conditions,” Garcia said in the webinar. “It’s not necessary, we know the answers, and we can address them.”
The report also notes that the cost of living in some areas exceeds the federal poverty guidelines, meaning some Arkansans struggle to get by but do not qualify for assistance programs such as SNAP. Nearly 367,000, or 31%, of all Arkansas households in 2022 were below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) threshold of financial survival, according to United for ALICE, a nonprofit composed of United Way organizations and other groups dedicated to research and solutions about poverty.
Obstacles and proposed solutions
One of several proposed policy changes in the report is raising the SNAP income limit to 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Under the current 130% gross income limit, a household of four people with no elderly or disabled family members would have to earn no more than $3,380 per month.
Arkansas is one of 13 states with an asset limit for SNAP recipients. Assets include cash on hand and in the bank, savings certificates and stocks and bonds, among other things.
The asset limit increased from $2,250 to $3,000 in 2024. Garcia said the limit should be repealed entirely because it prevents families on SNAP from being able to address unexpected expenses.
“Many families, once they fall off [SNAP], don’t get back on because it’s so difficult,” Garcia said. “…You could get over $3,000 and then the next month have to spend that whole amount of money. It’s just simply not enough, but it’s enough to make you lose your benefits, and a lot of people on SNAP are working families. Because of that, they don’t have time to go back and sit through interviews and do the entire process all over again.”
Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, has said the asset limit is “punitive” and disincentivizes people from saving enough money to overcome poverty.
He sponsored legislation in 2023 that initially would have raised the asset limit from $2,250 to $12,500 for Arkansans to qualify for SNAP benefits.
The bill met pushback from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said she opposed “expanding welfare,” even after an amendment lowered the proposed limit to $6,000.
The final amended version of the bill, which Sanders signed into law as Act 675 of 2023, maintained the $2,250 asset limit but authorized a USDA waiver request to allow exemptions for individual families with more assets. Those families would have a new asset limit of $5,500 and remain enrolled in SNAP as long as they receive an exemption within a year of exceeding the current limit.
During a Joint Budget subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Dismang asked Department of Human Services officials if the agency had submitted the waiver. Division of County Operations Director Mary Franklin said the “broad-based categorical eligibility” put forth in the bill did not require a waiver, but the department needed to ensure it had the funding to enact Act 675.
Broad-based categorical eligibility would allow families who qualify for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to also qualify for SNAP. Garcia included this as one of AACF’s policy recommendations.
Dismang said he was “disappointed” that there had not been “any progress whatsoever” on Act 675 after almost two years. He told the Advocate later on Wednesday that he would be “looking at simpler ways to clean that up and allow people to have the right to better their situation.”
Another 2023 law Dismang sponsored, Act 656, allowed students to receive free school meals if they already received reduced-price meals. Garcia said this law is an example that Arkansas officials can meet citizens’ nutritional needs if they choose to do so.
This year, Dismang is sponsoring a bill to create universal free school breakfast, funded by revenue from the state’s billion-dollar medical marijuana industry. Sanders announced the initiative earlier this month. The bill has yet to be heard by the Senate Education Committee.
AACF recommends implementing universal free school lunches in addition to breakfasts.
Garcia noted that more than 260,000 Arkansas children in 2024 participated in Summer EBT, a federal program for children to receive food assistance during their summer break from school. Sanders announced in November that the program will continue this year.
Sanders announced in December that Arkansas will seek permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prohibit SNAP recipients from purchasing highly processed foods and encourage consumption of more nutritious, locally grown foods.
Other policy changes AACF recommends include simplifying the SNAP enrollment process, which currently involves a 30-page application, and repealing the requirement for parents on SNAP to participate with child support enforcement. Garcia called the latter requirement overly burdensome.
Additionally, the report notes that Arkansas’ Marshallese population has not always been eligible for SNAP, though their eligibility was restored last year after federal law cut it in 1996.
“The Marshallese application is translated so poorly that Marshallese advocates report that it cannot be understood,” Garcia wrote in the report. “Marshallese families are some of the most food insecure in our state. Now that Marshallese-born individuals are eligible to apply for SNAP, it is incumbent upon the Arkansas Department of Human Services to work with native speakers to develop outreach and educational materials that are accurate and that convey the requirements in simple terms.”