On a Tuesday morning in early September, Westminster food pantry Growing Home was packed.
The place is set up like a small, well-stocked grocery store, and, on a recent Tuesday, a constant stream of people moved through the aisles. One of them, 66-year-old Geena Wissman, was relieved as she looked over the items in her cart.
"Boy, this is really gonna help me out," she said.
Wissman, who can't work because of a disability, said she goes hungry sometimes because she can't afford groceries. She's also a SNAP recipient. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called SNAP or food stamps, is the main source of food assistance for low-income Americans.
Wissman said she worries federal cuts to the program will make it even harder for her to get enough to eat.
"It would be a big problem for me. I probably wouldn't eat every day," Wissman said, as she loaded up her car outside the food pantry. "You know, I'm eating at least once a day now."
Wissman is one of more than 600,000 Coloradans who receive SNAP benefits, according to the Food Bank of the Rockies, the region's largest food assistance provider.
Congressional Republicans, as part of the tax and spending measure they passed this summer, are making sweeping changes to the program that anti-hunger advocates argue will make it harder for Coloradans to access benefits at a time when the demand for food assistance is skyrocketing.
One of the most significant changes will cut in half the amount of money the federal government gives to states for administering the program on the ground. Other changes will increase work requirements for SNAP recipients, limit who is eligible for the program, and end the program's outreach. Some of the changes don't take effect until next year or later.
But a coalition of Colorado lawmakers and anti-hunger advocates are trying to intervene with a pair of ballot measures headed to voters in November: Propositions LL and MM. If the two measures are ultimately approved by voters, they would allow the state to step in and make up for the loss of federal funding.
The measures were originally referred to the ballot by the legislature in the spring as a way to pay for Colorado's universal free school meals program, which has experienced higher demand than the state budgeted for. But in response to Congress passing the SNAP cuts this summer, lawmakers amended the ballot measures during their special legislative session in August to also pay for the state's increased share of SNAP funding.
Proposition MM would raise revenue to cover the two food assistance programs by increasing taxes on Coloradans who earn $300,000 per year or more. Proposition LL would allow the state to retain and use the new revenue it raises.
If the ballot measures are rejected, however, anti-hunger advocates say the rollback of federal SNAP funding and other changes to the program will make it harder for people to get new benefits and keep the ones they have, and exacerbate Colorado's food insecurity.
"What we're facing here in Colorado and across the country is such an increase in need, both right now and forthcoming in the next year and years to come," said Erin Pulling, President and CEO of Food Bank of the Rockies. "There's fewer resources right now on the state and federal level to implement these SNAP changes. What it's going to do is reduce the amount of food that can get on the tables of our neighbors who truly need it."
Food Bank of the Rockies found that approximately one in eight Coloradans experiences food insecurity. The size of the food-insecure population in the state also increased by more than 30% between 2019 and 2023, according to the most recent available data from Feeding America.
The need for food assistance was already growing in Colorado before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it spiked when pandemic-era expanded SNAP benefits expired in 2023. Now, anti-hunger advocates are worried that further losses in the benefits driven by the federal changes will push more people to turn to the state's already-overwhelmed food pantries.
Demand at Food Bank of the Rockies is at a ten-year high, and is increasing. Pulling said some of their mobile food distribution locations have seen a 20% jump in demand in just the last few months.
Other food banks and pantries across Colorado are seeing similar increases in demand, including the Growing Home in Westminster, where Geena Wissman gets the food she needs to make it through the month.
"We used to primarily see local community members coming through. Now we are seeing people come from Weld County, Denver County, Broomfield. We have folks coming from everywhere," said Veronica Perez, who runs Growing Home. "Our food pantry is seeing unprecedented numbers."
Reducing access to SNAP could also have long-term public health consequences. Jonathan Padia, who researches food assistance at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, pointed to Congress' decision to end SNAP Ed, the program's education initiative, a change that, unlike some of the others, went into effect this week.
"How do we educate on appropriate nutrition? Because that goes to the heart of these programs," Padia said. "You're serving an underserved population, you're upping your help and reducing their long-term healthcare complications that might arise from a poor diet."
But Padia also has hope. He said the state-level solutions to some of these cuts, like the upcoming ballot measures here in Colorado, are also an opportunity to innovate and inspire action elsewhere.
"Colorado is really at the forefront of nutrition in school meals, and then also in health with their proposal to help with the SNAP cuts. Really, we can be kind of like a shiny beacon."
In order to set an example for other states, Padia said, Colorado voters would have to approve the ballot measures in November.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story reported that more than 300,000 Coloradans receive SNAP benefits. The correct figure is more than 600,000.
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