About 97,000 Oklahomans are no longer accessing the food benefits on a monthly basis, compared to last year.
The latest USDA data show a 14% drop in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation from Feb. 2025 to Feb. 2026. Across the nation, enrollment is declining and Oklahoma is one of the states seeing the largest declines.
Nationally, there was about a 10% decline, according to the USDA.
The drop, Chris Bernard, executive director of Hunger Free Oklahoma, said should not be viewed as a success. He said Oklahoma's food insecurity rate remains among the nation's highest.
"We've now lost 14% — or 100,000 people a month have lost access to the most effective food insecurity intervention we have," Bernard said. "Our nonprofit sector is already stretched too thin, right? Our health and education outcomes are already pretty abysmal compared to other states."
Bernard said he expects more stress on the nonprofit sector and other indicators of food insecurity to worsen.
"We are essentially taking the foundation that folks, you know, our state needs to be successful and just have cut a big chunk out from under it," Bernard said.
In the past year, there have been multiple changes to the food program on both a state and federal level.
When H.R.1, called the "Big Beautiful Bill Act," became law, it shifted millions of dollars in SNAP costs to states, expanded the program's work requirements and reversed eligibility for some documented immigrants, including refugees and sex trafficking survivors.
The decline in participation, Bernard said, is mainly because of these changes to SNAP. He also said there is misinformation about the program being spread.
A host of states are working toward lower error rates to avoid more costs. Error rates are not fraud rates; they are over- or underpayments made to SNAP participants, according to the USDA.
In Oklahoma, Bernard said, certain measures the Oklahoma Department of Human Services has introduced, such as rereading applications, have cut down on errors. But others, like requiring more documentation on the front end, might eliminate a few errors but could have a larger cost by delaying the process.
"I don't think there's ill intent. You know, we work with the people at DHS, we know they care about the people they serve, but they are subject to the pressures and incentives created by federal and state policymakers," Bernard said. "And so this is the natural consequence of what H.R. 1 set up."
SNAP enrollment usually changes with the economy. But according to the left-leaning think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, it's unlikely that reduced need is leading to the decline in participation.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
