How SNAP work requirement changes may impact Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Salisbury, Md. – Last week, changes to SNAP eligibility requirements from the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill took effect, requiring people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to prove they are employed or complete at least 20 hours of job training or volunteering per week to keep their benefits.

The Maryland Food Bank President and CEO Meg Kimmel said that those changes could impact up to 80,000 Marylanders and will hurt vulnerable communities that have unique challenges to meeting the new requirements, stating that they may have lack of access to transportation, housing or internet.

“So applying for a job or finding that volunteer opportunity is much more difficult for these folks than it might be for others,” she said.

For places like the Christian Shelter in Salisbury, Executive Director J. Anthony Dickerson said the changes to SNAP eligibility will inevitably lead to more people needing their services, which Kimmel says is putting strain on an already overworked system.

“The impact of these changes across our state will not be a reduction of food insecurity,” she said. “It will just shift the burden elsewhere, and that elsewhere is the network of local food pantries in every community across our state. And it’s a system that’s already operating above capacity.”

Although the Christian Shelter is not a food pantry, it relies entirely on donations to help the most vulnerable in the community, and Dickerson said he worries that reductions in SNAP access might affect them.

“It may affect our donations because people may have the mindset that ‘I can’t afford to feed myself,'” he said.

Both Kimmel and Dickerson said transportation is especially challenging in more rural areas, like Maryland’s Eastern Shore, which Dickerson said can further complicate SNAP eligibility.

“Transportation is a major issue here,” he said. “It’s going to be challenging because most of the people need transportation, and how are they going to get to the volunteer sites or the work experience site?”

For now, both Kimmel and Dickerson say it might be up to the community to step in and help ease the strain.

“This is really a community problem,” Dickerson said. “We all step up and do what we can do because, as I always say, we can do it better when we do it together.”