advocacy
Alaska Hunger Trends and Federal Budget Decisions
By Rachel Lord, Advocacy and Policy Director, AFPC
Each year, Feeding America releases updated data on hunger across America. On May 14, 2025 they released their updated Food Insecurity Report for the nation with data from 2023.
2023 data for Alaska paints a troubling picture, with hunger rising across the board.
- Nearly 15% of Alaskans, 106,080 people, are food insecure – this is a nearly 12% increase in Alaskans facing hunger in the past year.
- 31,030 children are food insecure – that’s almost 18% of Alaskan kids, and 3% more kids than were hungry in 2022.
- 11,566 elders are food insecure, over 7% of our elder population.
Feeding America’s Minding the Meal Gap report shows increasing numbers of Alaskans are facing food insecurity in recent years.
Meanwhile this week in Congress, the Senate is considering “One Big Beautiful Bill” (H.R. 1) that would significantly impact Alaska’s food systems, particularly concerning nutrition assistance and rural agricultural development. With a bill of this size (over 1,100 pages), and covering an incredibly complex policy landscape, the information below is meant to highlight some of the most pressing food systems issues brought forward by our partners.
Today in Alaska
68,745 Alaskans receiving food assistance through SNAP
- 49% households with children
- 35% households with elders
- 3,747 veterans
- The vast majority – 83% – of SNAP households in Alaska today include someone who is working.
- Alaska’s food banks and food pantries are at maximum capacity (or beyond) with the amount of need right now. This is being seen nation-wide.
- Nearly $251 million came into Alaska through SNAP food assistance in 2023. This was spent at 552 food retailers, including grocery stores and farmers markets across the state.
Big, Beautiful Bill Impacts on Alaska
Nutrition
Based on the Nutrition provisions within the bill, below are some of the top concerns and estimates for impacts to Alaskans. Data for people losing all or some SNAP assistance comes from a May 28, 2025 report from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities.
- 6,000 Alaskan adults with school-age children at risk of losing all food assistance
- 14,000 Alaskans in households with school-age children at risk of losing some food assistance
- Alaska ranks among the most expensive states for child care, averaging over $13,000 annually per child. Unless we’re going to have 7 year olds at home alone after school while their single parent is working, we need to expand our childcare availability and affordability and/or work with employers to expand job opportunities that align with the school day hours. Neither of these are part of the bill.
- 5,000 Alaskan adults ages 55-64 at risk of losing all or some of food assistance
- Elimination of funding for the National Education and Obesity Prevention Grant (Alaska’s SNAP-Ed), which provides nutrition and health support for low-income Alaskans
- Cost shift of $62 million to Alaska’s state budget for SNAP. This will be incredibly detrimental as we’re making progress decreasing the state error rate after the pandemic.
- The National Grocers Association estimates the proposed cuts to SNAP would eliminate $537 billion for food and agriculture industries over the next decade. 552 Alaskan retailers saw $281+ million from SNAP in 2023 alone. Substantial reductions will have significant impacts across our food supply chain, from production to distribution to retail.
Agriculture
This bill pulls some, but far from all, agriculture provisions from the Farm Bill into reconciliation. We have significant concerns that walking away from a full Farm Bill will be very detrimental to Alaska and other rural areas across the country that aren’t dominated by commodity crops.
- Over 50% of our 1,173 farms are less than 50 acres
- Less than 5% of our farms grow commodity crops (wheat, oats, barley)
- The majority of Alaskan farmers directly benefit from Farm Bill programs that are left behind through the reconciliation proposal, including:
- Farm loan programs and capital access
- Food safety outreach programs
- Local Agriculture Market Program, including Value-Added Producer Grants
- Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE) – Western SARE is farmer-driven, and works collaboratively with the Alaska Farm Bureau for their annual farmers meeting for farmers across the state to network and learn from one another and researchers to help grow Alaska’s ag industry
- Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, which had nearly $60,000 in sales direct to small Alaskan farmers in 2023
- Produce prescription projects through the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP)
Take action today:
Your voice matters!
Call or write to Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan. Urge them to oppose any budget deal that includes cuts to SNAP or other essential food and nutrition programs, and that picks farm bill provisions that leave behind the majority of Alaska’s farmers and ranchers.
Sample message:
“As your constituent, I urge you to protect SNAP and oppose any budget reconciliation package that includes cuts to food assistance. Reducing SNAP will hurt hungry Alaskans and our economy. SNAP is used by working families, veterans, elders, and people with disabilities to reduce hunger. SNAP improves health outcomes and helps people get out of poverty. Please do not support cuts to SNAP – in 2023, Alaskan retailers redeemed over $281 million at farmers markets, grocery stores, and other retailers. Our anti-hunger organization partners cannot fill this gap. The hunger will not go away just because there isn’t funding.
In addition to hundreds of billions in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the budget reconciliation bill would reduce access to quality food in rural and urban communities, reduce market opportunities for farmers, fail to address climate impacts like natural disasters, and decrease the possibility of passing a new farm bill almost two years after the 2018 Farm Bill has expired. All farmers deserve support so they can thrive, and our community members deserve access to nutritious food – this bill hurts farmers and families.”
Lisa Murkowski:
- Anchorage: (907) 271-3735
- Fairbanks: (907) 456-0233
- Juneau: (907) 586-7277
- Wasilla: (907) 376-7665
- Soldotna: (907) 262-4220
- Ketchikan: (907) 225-6880
- D.C.: (202) 224-6665
Dan Sullivan:
- Anchorage: (907) 271-5915
- Fairbanks: (907) 456-0261
- Juneau: (907) 205-3767
- Wasilla: (907) 357-9956
- Soldotna: (907) 262-4040
- Ketchikan: (907) 225-6880
- D.C.: (202) 224-3004
