When Olena K. arrived in Washington in 2023 as a refugee from Ukraine fleeing war with nothing but $2,000 in cash, food stamps were a crucial lifeline.
Now, as she waits for her work authorization documents that would allow her to secure a job, the $298 in monthly food assistance she receives is one of the only things keeping her from going hungry.
“When you come to a new country and don’t speak the language and can’t understand the environment and what’s going on, this kind of support is very important for the first years,” Olena said through an interpreter. She asked to be identified only by her first name and last initial for fear of endangering family members' chances of leaving Ukraine.
“I cannot even think about how a person could survive without this support,” she said. “It’s difficult for me to understand.”
While food stamp benefits have resumed after a lapse during the partial government shutdown, thousands of refugees, people granted asylum and other immigrants with humanitarian protections in Washington are at risk of losing their assistance under new federal restrictions.
Millions of Americans are expected to be removed from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program under new provisions outlined in the Republican-backed tax and spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in July. Undocumented immigrants have never been eligible for federal SNAP benefits.
Among those impacted by the new rules are roughly 30,000 refugees, people granted asylum and other humanitarian visa holders in Washington who rely on the country’s largest anti-hunger program to buy groceries and feed their families.
While some states have already stopped distributing SNAP funds to these immigrants, Washington officials say the state will step in to fund food stamps for legal immigrants who have been cut from SNAP, covering the gap in federal money.
But local refugee resettlement agencies and community groups serving immigrants worry the state relief may not last forever.
For these families — many of whom came to the U.S with few belongings, little money and sparse connections as they fled violence and persecution in their home country — the prospect of losing SNAP is “really scary and really significant,” said Kathleen Morris, executive director of International Rescue Committee Washington.
“The state does everything it can, but this is a huge deficit to try to fill,” Morris said. “It’s hard to imagine the state being able to cover these costs long-term, as much as I know there’s effort and willingness to do so.”
'Significant out-of-pocket costs'
Washington has an existing state-funded Food Assistance Program (FAP) that already covers benefits for legal immigrants who aren’t eligible for SNAP because of their immigration status.
Prior to Trump’s megabill, the state program was projected to cost about $110.2 million for state fiscal year 2026, which began in July. In September, just over 22,500 households received food assistance through the program, receiving on average $341 a month.
The state’s Department of Social and Health Services plans to shift the roughly 14,365 households cut from federal SNAP benefits because of immigration status to the state-funded program, according to department spokesperson Norah West.
The cost to cover these additional households is estimated at $126.3 million over the next two fiscal years, West said in an email.
State officials say impacted immigrant groups should not see a change in their monthly benefit amounts as they move to FAP, and that they will not need to apply for the state program. Additionally, existing FAP households that remain eligible for SNAP should not see a change to their benefits.
Advocates serving refugees and immigrants say, however, they are concerned the state — facing a tight budget and weakening revenue forecasts — will struggle to cover these benefits long-term.
On Wednesday, Washington joined a coalition of states suing the Trump administration over guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that lists several legal immigrant groups permanently ineligible for SNAP, even if they became green card holders.
The lawsuit noted that states that provide food benefits to people not eligible for SNAP “will face significant out-of-pocket costs” to issue assistance to noncitizens now deemed ineligible.
‘Food or rent?’
Federal government assistance in the form of food stamps and health insurance to help refugees get on their feet quickly and find a job has been a linchpin of the resettlement process for decades, said Crisann Brooks, senior director of family empowerment services at Refugee Women’s Alliance in Seattle.
“This has been longstanding, and they’re critical, actually, to the success of people being here,” Brooks said. “If we don’t have them, it becomes a choice — is it food or rent? Is it utility and heat, or food?”
ReWA serves about 5,000 to 6,000 people annually, Brooks said, estimating roughly three-fourths are enrolled in SNAP. Brooks said she and staff have begun preparing participants for the possibility they may lose SNAP in the future.
A 2024 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report found refugees and people granted asylum generated a $123.8 billion positive net fiscal impact over a 15-year period, contributing more in revenue like taxes than they cost in expenditures like public assistance.
While a majority of newly arrived refugees and people granted asylum enroll in SNAP, many eventually move off food assistance. The 2024 federal report found that about one in five in the 2005-2019 study period received SNAP benefits at some time during the year.
“None of them want to rely on SNAP in the long term, it’s a bridge that gets them to the next step,” Morris said. As they build a new life in the U.S., food assistance helps them to be able to improve their English, climb the career ladder, achieve their goals, support their families, put their kids through school."
Olena, the refugee from Ukraine, said if she loses SNAP benefits before she can legally work, she will likely have to rely almost exclusively on her local food bank to keep her fridge full. She dreams of opening her own business one day as a music teacher, offering piano, guitar and singing lessons.
"I wouldn't want this food stamp support to stop exactly for the reason to be more independent in the future," she said. Public assistance "gives you hope for the future [to move] step by step, go further and become useful for the country and for yourself.
Jewish Family Service of Seattle, a refugee resettlement agency, enrolls 100% of newly arriving refugees and Iraqi or Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders in SNAP, often as early as the day after they arrive in the U.S, said director of programs Griff Lambert.
While he, like other service providers, are grateful the state plans to cover SNAP benefits, Lambert said it’s unclear how long the state plans to cover affected immigrants.
“We’re bracing for the reality that this can last only so long,” Lambert said. “We’re not under the impression that a year from now, the state will be providing the same level of funding it currently is.”
‘Real human beings’
Nationwide, 434,000 refugees and people granted asylum received SNAP in fiscal year 2023, according to USDA data, representing about 1% of all program participants. About 1.3 million, or roughly 3% of all SNAP recipients, were other noncitizens such as lawful permanent residents.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 90,000 people will be cut from SNAP in an average month because of new restrictions on noncitizen eligibility.
The SNAP eligibility changes under Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act are part of a larger effort by the administration to reduce immigration into the U.S. and curb the use of public benefits by immigrants.
The federal law also includes new stricter work requirements for parents and older adults. Washington estimates about 137,000 state residents are poised to lose federal SNAP benefits because of that new provision.
Federal SNAP benefits help about 42 million low-income Americans buy groceries each month. The program lapsed for the first time in its 60-year history — leaving states scrambling and food banks overwhelmed — during the partial government shutdown that ended this month.
The pause gave many refugees a taste of what a future without food assistance might look like, said Medard Ngueita, executive director of World Relief Western Washington.
His organization leaned on churches to give out grocery gift cards to those who had nothing left on their EBT cards, he said. Ngueita expects churches, community groups and food banks will once again be the last line of defense for food aid.
“We lock ourselves into statistics, ignoring that there are real human beings behind those numbers we look at,” he said. “I would ask policymakers and decisionmakers keep that in mind and not let families go hungry.”
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