RICHMOND, Va. - One Virginian in every seven risks going hungry, according to a new report, and that number is higher in some parts of the state.

According to a new national analysis from the Food Research and Action Center, slightly more than 15 percent of Virginians live with food hardship. Seventeen percent in Hampton Roads and 18 percent in Richmond risk not having enough to eat.

LaTonya Reed, director of Virginia Hunger Solutions, said the slowly improving economy hasn't really changed that picture.

"There's still great need out there," she said. "There are way too many people, far too many people, who are continuing to struggle to put food on their tables, to provide their families with nutritious meals."

The research from FRAC - titled "How Hungry is America?" - tallied how many Americans couldn't afford to buy food at some time during 2014. Nationally, that number is slightly more than 17 percent - one in six.

The Republican-controlled Congress is threatening to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - food stamps - as a budget-cutting measure. Reed said trimming the SNAP program is a terrible idea when the needs are still so great.

"It is important to reach out to elected officials and let them know that they need to take steps to strengthen our nutrition safety net," she said, "not to weaken it but to truly strengthen it."

Reed said SNAP was cut last year and has been a regular target for reductions for several years. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, SNAP has very low rates of waste, fraud and abuse.

The report is online at frac.org.


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Food-bank organizations teamed up in four states, including Wyoming, to launch the 104° West Collaborative in 2021 to better serve their Indigenous community members.

Early research has helped them understand how to serve these rural communities in culturally informed ways.

There are 23 federally recognized Native Nations across North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming - each with unique food access, security, and sovereignty issues.

President and CEO of the Montana Food Bank Network Gayle Carlson said the collaborative spent its first year interviewing key tribal leaders, to make a cultural learning series for food-bank staff and board members.

"It goes the gamut from the historical perspective of how food was used as a weapon," said Carlson, "all the way to who's the point of contact we should first be working with, so that we had that full spectrum of understanding."

The Food Bank of Wyoming's Totes of Hope program provides food for 150 Fort Washakie kids - about a third of its student population - when school isn't in session.

The organization is looking to expand its mobile food pantry deliveries on the Wind River Reservation this year.

Carlson said in cases of extremely long traveling distances, it can make more sense to use food bank resources to support agencies on or near the reservations to help serve people living there, rather than food banks delivering food themselves.

She added that the four-state area is almost 400,000 square miles.

"That was something that really struck home to me is the rural nature of these reservations," said Carlson. "They are a long way away from any services. They do not have public transportation. So for them to go a hundred miles to go to the Walmart is really, really difficult."

The Wyoming Food Bank distributed more than 615,000 pounds of food across the state's reservations in 2024.




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Thousands of Ohioans relying on SNAP benefits to feed their families are finding their accounts drained due to electronic skimming fraud.

Criminals are installing devices at grocery store checkout terminals, stealing people's electronic benefits or EBT card information and wiping out funds.

Audrey Vanzant, director of communications for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, said victims often do not realize it until it is too late.

"They're taking their account information and draining their accounts," Vanzant explained. "When that mother or that grandparent goes to swipe their benefit card, it's coming up that they have a zero dollar balance."

Until recently, federal reimbursements helped people recover stolen benefits but the funding ended in December. Now, Ohioans who fall victim to skimmers have no way to reclaim lost benefits. Vanzant pointed out at least 27,000 Ohio residents have been affected, with fraud costing taxpayers an estimated $14 million.

Ohio officials recently indicted a New York businessman and his company for allegedly defrauding Ohioans of more than $125,000 in stolen SNAP benefits. Investigators found Ohio EBT card details were used every 30 to 45 seconds at a Brooklyn store, with transactions as high as $800.

State officials are also now considering security upgrades, including chip-enabled EBT cards and enhanced fraud monitoring. Vanzant stressed the changes cannot come soon enough.

"Having to cancel your card and all of that is always an inconvenience," Vanzant observed. "But when you're talking about putting food in your mouth, that's beyond inconvenience. We have heard people in Ohio have been on wait times up to 11 hours. Unless you take the precautions, you are potentially at risk to be scammed again."

In the meantime, authorities urge SNAP recipients to regularly check their balances, report suspicious transactions and be cautious when using their EBT cards at unfamiliar locations. Instructions on how to lock and unlock cards for each transaction can be found on the Ohio Job and Family Services website.

A budget resolution recently passed by the U.S. House calls for reducing agriculture funding to the tune of $230 billion.

But critics warn that the proposal will lead to severe cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP - formerly known as food stamps.

Dayana Leyva, policy manager with Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger, said the food assistance program currently serves over half a million Coloradans - and six in ten recipients are families with children.

"These cuts to SNAP benefits will be most harmful for our rural communities," said Leyva, "as SNAP enrollment in rural counties are higher than in urban areas."

In a recent poll, 60% of Trump voters said cutting SNAP is unacceptable - and the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee says there will be no cuts to the program, just to "waste and fraud."

SNAP reductions would be one way for the Trump administration to make good on promises to deliver a tax cut package which, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, would put two-thirds of the benefits into the pockets of the wealthiest 20% of Americans.

Leyva said the current proposal would reduce monthly benefits below what's necessary to maintain a healthy diet, limit state control, and add harsher work requirements and red tape.

She said SNAP recipients who are able to work already do so.

"You have to be working 20 hours a week to keep your benefits," said Leyva. "The folks that aren't working are either caregivers, folks who are disabled, elderly, or children."

Cutting SNAP would also impact farmers, grocers and other small businesses. The program is a significant economic driver.

The U.S. Department of Agrriculture estimates that $1 invested generates a $1.5 to $1.8 in local economic activity.

Leyva said Coloradans would also take a hit if Congress shifted the program's cost to the states.

"And here in Colorado we have nearly a $1.2 billion budgetary deficit," said Leyva, "so there is really no way for Colorado to pick up those costs. And that is the reality for most states."