About 1 in 5 Kansas children face hunger. Here in Allen County, over 1,300 people participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
That equals out to around 11.2% of our population, based on U.S. Census data, making Allen County the county with the 11th highest participation in the state. Greenwood County is the highest, with 14.7% of its residents enrolled in SNAP.
Statewide, there are 19 counties where at least 10% of households use SNAP. Most are concentrated in the southeast part of the state.
For decades, states and the federal government split the program’s administrative costs. That changed Oct. 1, when the federal government reduced its support by half. Now, states must pay 75% of the administrative costs.
Next year, states will be left with even more to cover. If a state’s error rate is above 6%, they’ll be on the hook for paying for SNAP benefits themselves. (The error rate is not considered a metric for measuring fraud.)
The most recent national average payment error rate is 10.62%. Kansas had a rate of 9.4%, a slight decrease from 9.9% in 2024. Under the current plan, Kansas would have to pay around $40 million more each year.
These changes are part of H.R. 1, or the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that was signed into law last July.
SNAP feeds our neediest, but the program is getting more expensive for states to afford.
At the same time — and arguably for the same reason — it’s also being gutted. Nationally, about 5 million, or 12%, of SNAP participants have lost benefits over the last year. In Kansas, it’s around 31,000 fewer people, including more than 13,500 children.
Tightening requirements, additional paperwork, and longer wait times play a role. But the bigger picture is this: As states realize they have to pay more for SNAP, they’re simply making it harder to qualify.
“The only thing [states] can control is how to reduce their errors super quick, and that’s by making it more complicated for families to get on SNAP,” said Ty Jones Cox, the vice president for food assistance at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
An alternative explanation is that people didn’t need the benefits in the first place.
But unemployment rates are largely the same. The minimum wage hasn’t changed. Inflation and higher gas prices are eating into paychecks, and food banks are busier than ever.
Friday’s job numbers show the country has added an average of 68,000 jobs per month in 2026. Last year, that number was around 15,000. That’s nowhere close to replacing the 5 million who have lost benefits.
“We know the decline in SNAP participation is not because the economy is suddenly doing great,” John Wilson, president of Kansas Action for Children, told me Friday. “Between state and federal laws, we’ve simply erected more barriers.”
EARLIER this week, Kansas lawmakers gathered in Topeka to discuss the state’s byzantine SNAP application process.
