The CEOs of the Washington Area Women’s Foundation and Jeremiah Program team up to sound the alarm about how fall 2026’s SNAP changes will impact single-mother families.
Ask a single mother what she is watching this fall, and she will not say the midterms. She will say October because that is when states will be asked to do more with less, and families will be left to absorb the difference. That is when the ground shifts.
Beginning October 1, states become responsible for 75% of the cost of administering SNAP, up from the half they have paid since the program began. Pew Charitable Trusts calls it the biggest structural change to the program in more than 60 years. Three months later, on January 1, 2027, 44 states must begin making documented work hours a condition of Medicaid eligibility for adults who are part of a new expansion group. Neither change requires a single new vote in Washington. Both land in statehouses, on governors’ desks, and inside county agencies that are already stretched.
