by Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
February 5, 2026
After failing in recent years to convince the Oregon Legislature to extend food benefits to tens of thousands of immigrants, an anti-hunger coalition is narrowing its scope this year to addressing coming cuts to federal food aid.
Oregonians made more than 2.9 million visits to food pantries last year, a 50% increase from 2023, according to the Oregon Food Bank. The statewide food pantry network is already stretched to its limit, advocates said at a Thursday rally on the Capitol steps, and they’re anticipating more demand because congressional Republicans’ 2025 tax and spending megalaw limited eligibility for food aid and shifted costs to states.
The state Department of Human Services estimated more than 310,000 of the more than 750,000 Oregonians who receive food benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could be at risk of losing them under new requirements that adults without young children prove they’re working, and that at least 3,000 refugees, asylees and trafficking survivors previously eligible for SNAP will lose benefits.
Meanwhile, the department says it needs at least $114 million in the current two-year budget that ends in June 2027 to implement the federal law’s new requirements that states pay more administrative costs and reduce payment error rates.
Members of an anti-hunger coalition including the Oregon Food Bank visited the Capitol to urge lawmakers to support the department’s budget request, and to consider allocating $3.5 million to pay for benefits for the immigrants who lost SNAP eligibility and up to $25 million for food pantries. They’re also supporting Senate Bill 1581, which would require schools to offer free lunch and breakfast to all students, as most already do.
“This is not about charity,” Oregon Food Bank President Andrea Williams said. “It’s about responsibility. Food is not a privilege, it’s not political leverage, it’s a basic human right, and Oregon is stronger when everyone eats.”
In prior sessions, the coalition has sought unsuccessfully to extend food benefits to more than 60,000 Oregon residents who meet income thresholds but don’t qualify for SNAP because they’re not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Last year, they tried a scaled-down bill that would have extended benefits to people 25 and younger and 55 and older.
Matt Newell-Ching, senior public policy manager at the Oregon Food Bank, said advocates were “heartbroken” to give up on the goal of food aid for all, regardless of immigration status, during this legislative session.
“Given all the circumstances, it was going to be too big of a hill to climb this session,” he said. “It still remains our North Star that everyone deserves food.”
Adrienne Sampson, a member of the Oregon Food Bank’s policy leadership council and of the Bitter Water Clan of the Navajo Nation, described how she used local food banks, SNAP, the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program and occasionally cash assistance through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to care for herself and her children while escaping domestic violence.
Sampson, who now lives on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with her children and spouse, a member of the Cayuse tribe, said she couldn’t imagine life without the assistance she received when she needed it.
“In indigenous teachings, good food is medicine, water is medicine, laughter is medicine,” she said. “In order for our communities to be happy and productive, we need access to nourishing food, clean water and less financial stress.”
Changes to SNAP eligibility for refugees and asylum seekers are hitting African refugees in Oregon hard, said Yonas Kassie, executive director of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Cultural and Resource Center. Families he works with are losing an average of $400 per month in food benefits and many are forced to choose between rent and groceries.
“These are families who escaped war, trauma and persecution, came to Oregon for safety and are now facing different kinds of crisis, hunger,” Kassie said. “This crisis is not because they are not trying. It’s because the system is failing them.”
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Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: [email protected].