In Kansas and Missouri, some 843,000 people receive SNAP food assistance. All of them shop at a local grocery store.
“I'm going to say 70% of our customers are using food stamps of some kind,” said Chris Kavadas, manager of Happy Foods at 31st Street and Norton Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.
That accounts for 60% of the store’s business.
Kavadas said the timing is terrible.
“Normally I would be filling this store full for Thanksgiving and Christmas, getting things all stacked up. We've cut way back on what we were ordering so far.”
SNAP accounts for 12% of all grocery store sales at 27,000 retailers nationwide, according to the National Grocers Association. The NGA also estimates SNAP generates about $20 billion in wages and $4 billion in state and federal taxes.
“I think most people don't recognize how many of the businesses, and especially food establishments in their communities, are bolstered by SNAP dollars,” Lily Roberts, with the Center for American Progress, told Marketplace. “SNAP is an incredible boost to local economies.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that every dollar in SNAP spending generates $1.54 in economic activity. Every billion dollars supports 13,560 jobs.
“Outlays also increased rural and urban employment and household incomes, with relatively larger increases for rural areas,” a USDA research paper said.
Happy Foods North in Kansas City, Kansas, is also worried.
“30 to 35% of our business comes from families with SNAP,” said Travis Shipman whose family has owned the market on Leavenworth Road for decades. “I’m really worried about the people who have kids,” he said.
Happy Foods on the Missouri side is better known to locals as Wild Woody’s, its name before a 2023 sale. The store has been on 31st Street since the 1950s, and some families have been shopping there since it opened.
“You get to know them. They’re friends, you know, they're not just a customer,” Kavadas said.
Kavadas also says that the store will try its best to keep employees working, although some may have their hours reduced.
Farmer’s markets, which can redeem SNAP benefits for local produce, are also feeling the effects.
“We have seen both fewer customers and less SNAP benefits being spent by the customers that do attend as the impending funding crisis looms,” Ethan Eckert, who works at the Overland Park Farmer’s Market, told NPR.
“Delayed or reduced benefits mean less healthy food, less often,” according to a group of farmer’s markets in Seattle.
