LINCOLN — The number of Nebraskans receiving public food assistance continues a downward slide, punctuated by recent back-to-back record drops in monthly participation since the state began releasing public SNAP data in 2014. The latest figures show that about 7,600 fewer Nebraskans were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in July compared with the month before. Total participation was 116,703 Nebraskans, down from about 150,000 a year ago.

July beat June in terms of the biggest single-month loss of SNAP participants in more than a decade and since the summer of 2025, when Congress approved a massive tax-and-spending-cuts package described by President Donald Trump as big and beautiful. In a legislative hearing Thursday, a Nebraska Appleseed nutrition advocate sounded further alarm.

Records show that compared with July 2025, nearly 33,000 fewer people in Nebraska received public food assistance this July, a nearly 22% dip over the year. Eric Savaiano, the nonprofit Appeseed’s manager for food and nutrition access, said about half of that loss represents Nebraska youth and teens under age 19, with 13% of the total annual loss being infants and children under 5.

He called that shocking and said the decline does not mean “someone solved hunger last summer.”

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