Food insecurity isn’t just about an empty pantry. It’s about systemic inequities that limit access to nutrition, safety, and dignity. Across the United States, millions of people are facing growing barriers to putting food on the table. As cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) ripple through communities, disabled people—especially Black and brown disabled people—are among those most severely impacted.
The Reality of Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is defined as the lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. But for many disabled people, food insecurity also means navigating a web of physical, financial, and bureaucratic barriers that make even basic access to nutrition a daily struggle.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 28 million Americans are experiencing food insecurity in 2025—a number that continues to climb as federal assistance programs are reduced or delayed (Godoy and Ludden). Recent reports show that millions of households temporarily lost their SNAP benefits due to budget cuts and administrative shutdowns, leaving many families without a safety net when they needed it most (Vesoulis).
For the disabled community, food insecurity has never been just an individual challenge—it’s a systemic one. Disabled adults are twice as likely to experience food insecurity compared to nondisabled adults, due to barriers that include unemployment, fixed or inadequate income, limited access to transportation or accessible grocery stores, and discrimination in both public assistance programs and the job market (Henly, Brucker, and Coleman-Jensen).
Even when disabled people are eligible for SNAP, the program itself often creates more barriers than it removes. Lengthy recertification processes, inaccessible online portals, and complicated reporting requirements can all result in benefit loss. For someone managing chronic illness or multiple jobs, one missed appointment or unreceived letter can mean weeks or months without food support. These bureaucratic systems, designed under the guise of accountability, end up reinforcing hunger and instability.
When Policy Creates Hunger
SNAP is one of the nation’s most critical tools for reducing poverty and hunger. It’s also one of the most scrutinized. Political leaders often frame SNAP as a temporary handout rather than a basic human right. This framing shapes public opinion, stigmatizing the people who depend on it.
In 2025, a series of federal shutdowns and political disputes over funding caused major disruptions to SNAP benefits. Tens of millions of people temporarily lost access to food assistance, including millions of disabled adults and children. As Mother Jones reported, “tens of millions of people lost their food stamps—at least temporarily—when the federal government failed to renew funding” (Vesoulis).
For people already living paycheck to paycheck—or reliant on SSI or SSDI income that barely covers rent—these cuts can be catastrophic. Many disabled people report stretching one meal over several days, skipping medication that must be taken with food, or relying on food pantries that are not accessible or stocked with medically necessary items.
Cuts to SNAP don’t just shrink budgets; they shrink lives. They strip communities of autonomy, dignity, and the ability to plan for a future not dominated by scarcity.
The Racial and Disability Justice Lens
Food insecurity cannot be fully understood without addressing race and disability together. Black and brown disabled people face compounded barriers that are rooted in both racism and ableism.
Historically, the American food system has excluded communities of color through practices like redlining, urban disinvestment, and the forced closure of Black-owned farms and grocery stores. Those same communities now experience higher rates of both disability and food insecurity. For example, Black households are more than twice as likely to experience food insecurity compared to white households, and this gap widens further among disabled populations.
Transportation, too, is a major factor. Many public transit systems are not fully accessible, particularly in rural and suburban areas. In cities where grocery stores have been replaced by luxury developments, traveling long distances to reach affordable, fresh food is a barrier in itself.
When SNAP benefits are cut, these intersecting inequities don’t just collide—they multiply. The consequences fall hardest on those least protected by current systems. Black and Brown disabled people are often erased from the conversation, even though they live at the exact intersection where policy failure meets lived experience.
The Hidden Costs of Hunger
Food insecurity also has direct consequences for health and well-being. For people with chronic illnesses, access to consistent nutrition can determine whether treatments are effective. Poor nutrition exacerbates conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease—all of which disproportionately affect disabled and Black communities.
Healthcare providers often fail to screen for food insecurity or assume it’s an issue of “personal responsibility.” But hunger is not the result of poor choices—it’s the result of inequitable systems. When disabled people don’t have access to the food their bodies require, they’re forced into a cycle of worsening health, higher medical costs, and greater dependency on the very systems that continue to fail them.
This isn’t just an individual or community issue—it’s a public health crisis with deep policy roots.
Hunger as a Disability Justice Issue
Food insecurity is not inevitable—it’s a policy choice. Legislators decide whether disabled people can afford to eat, access benefits without discrimination, and live in communities where healthy food is an option rather than a privilege.
Cuts to SNAP do more than shrink a budget line—they deepen the divide between those who have enough and those who do not. They reveal a national failure to see food access as a fundamental right tied to survival and dignity.
Disability Justice teaches us that access must be holistic. Food, housing, healthcare, and community care are not separate issues—they are all part of survival. By centering the leadership and experiences of Black and brown disabled people, we can begin to reimagine a system that values nourishment as a human right.
Reimagining Access Through Collective Care
Addressing food insecurity through a Disability Justice lens means more than restoring SNAP benefits—it means rethinking how communities feed, sustain, and care for one another.
That work is already happening at the grassroots level. Across the country, disabled organizers and mutual aid networks are creating alternative systems of care that fill the gaps left by government neglect. These include mobile food pantries that prioritize accessibility, community gardens built by and for disabled residents, and collective buying programs that reduce cost and waste.
But community care should not replace systemic responsibility. True liberation means demanding policies that center those most affected by hunger—Black and brown disabled communities—and holding institutions accountable for creating sustainable, inclusive systems.
Moving Toward Justice
Ending hunger requires more than charity. It requires shifting power. Policymakers must:
- Restore and expand SNAP benefits to meet the real cost of living.
- Simplify application and recertification processes to eliminate barriers.
- Ensure all public food programs and spaces are physically and digitally accessible.
- Support community-led solutions and food sovereignty movements led by disabled and BIPOC organizers.
When we treat food access as a right, not a reward, we begin to move closer to collective liberation.
You can download our accompanying resource guide here.
Sources
Godoy, Maria, and Jennifer Ludden. “SNAP Benefits Will Restart, but Will Be Half the Normal Payment and Delayed.” NPR, 3 Nov. 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5596121/snap-food-benefits-trump-government-shutdow.
Henly, Megan, Debra L. Brucker, and Alisha Coleman-Jensen. “Food Insecurity among Those with Disability: Cross-Survey Comparison of Estimates and Implications for Future Research.” Public Health Nutrition, vol. 28, no. 7, 2025, pp. 1–12, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11872223/.
Vesoulis, Abby. “Tens of Millions of People Lost Their Food Stamps—For Now.” Mother Jones, 4 Nov. 2025, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/11/food-stamps-funding-lost-trump/.
