‘This is about keeping babies fed’

When Ashley Trent picks up the phone at her job as a housing assistance navigator, she often hears someone in a similar situation to her own on the other line. As she helps people in Bloomington, Illinois, without stable housing find somewhere safe to live, the back of her own mind buzzes with thoughts about which bills she will have to skip out on to buy food for her own family next month.

“I’m on the phone with somebody that’s in the same boat as I am,” she said. “It’s not like they’re doing so much worse than me. A lot of people work 40 to 50 hours a week and cannot afford a house or cannot afford rent or food.”

Come Saturday, Nov. 1, when nutritional assistance programs like SNAP and WIC that support more than 47 million Americans a month may be cut off, decisions like those Trent faces could be the reality for millions of Americans – and specifically, thousands of single moms. SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, provides cash cards to low-income families for a limited time to help purchase unprepared foods. Monthly allotments can be a maximum of $588 a month for a family of three. For women with children up to age 5, WIC provides health education, breastfeeding support and food assistance at amounts lower than SNAP.

SNAP benefits will not be paid in November unless lawmakers find the funding needed as the government shutdown drags on. As of the morning of Oct. 31, the 25 states that sued the Trump administration to keep SNAP benefits flowing were waiting for a decision from a federal judge after an Oct. 30 hearing on the case.

While WIC got a temporary cash infusion earlier this month, the National WIC Association has warned that those funds will dry up within the first week or so of the month.

The White House and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees both programs, have not responded to repeated requests for comment about funding WIC in the coming months.

Trent is a single mother who relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to feed her six children, ranging in age from 1 to 19. She works a steady job, like 44.9% of SNAP households with children in 2023 did, according to the USDA. Most who aren’t employed are elderly or disabled. Even with work, Trent has found it difficult to keep up with the rapidly rising cost of necessities.

Like many mothers on WIC, she especially looks to the program to help her purchase baby food and fresh, healthy items that supply nutrition that enables her to keep partially breastfeeding.

“When I moved here (in July), my baby was still 8 months old … and baby food is very expensive,” she said. “You go to the grocery store and you’re like ‘OK, this starts adding up.'”

SNAP recipients by the numbers: Who will be impacted by food stamps running out?

Cost of formula, baby food is on the rise

The cost of baby-specific foods and formula has been on the rise, with the cost of baby food and formula increasing 14.2% from January 2022 to January 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.

A standard can of powdered formula is about 12.5 ounces, which can make about 90 to 180 ounces of liquid when prepared. While newborns may only consume around 8-16 ounces of formula per day on average, that amount bumps to an average of 24-40 ounces a day by 6 months of age. A standard 12.5-ounce can of formula costs on average between $20-$30, according to data compiled by BabyCenter.

On the low end, this can equate to about four cans, or about $80, each month. On the high end, a child can need 14 cans totaling $420 a month. Specialty formulas sometimes required by health conditions can quickly make that bill even higher.

Kayla Lawson, a single mother of three living in North Carolina, said she relies on WIC to pay for the special formula her 6-week-old, who was born prematurely, needs.

“It’s $10 more per can, so it’s pretty pricey. It’s almost $40 per can. You’ve got six or seven cans a month at $40 each time, and that just really adds up,” she said. “And she’s still young, so she doesn’t need quite as much as an older baby. That number is just going to go up.”

Lawson, who works at a senior living center, said her family relies on WIC and SNAP to afford good-quality, healthy foods they otherwise would not be able to buy, especially as grocery prices continue to rise. These programs mitigate the significant financial challenge of feeding her 6-year-old, 9-year-old and herself, as well as her infant daughter. Disruptions to the programs, she said, leave parents like her with some hard decisions.

“We may have to skip out on a bill or just try to maybe make a partial payment or something like that towards some of it,” she said. “And that’s very stressful because then you’re thinking, ‘Gosh, it’s going to put me even more behind.'”

‘This is about keeping babies fed’

Gianni Avalos, a Texas-based family law attorney who operates online under the title “Single Mom Attorney,” said that she was only able to become a lawyer and feed her son at the same time because of the help she received from WIC. Her baby had a milk allergy, which meant she also had to opt for a higher-priced specialty formula.

“WIC would only allot funds for X amounts of cans of formula, which meant that I had to cover the remaining amount that my baby needed. I was probably spending anywhere between $200 to $300 out-of-pocket and that’s after what WIC was able to help me with,” she said. “Now I can’t even imagine not having WIC, because then that would have probably amounted to $700, maybe even $1,000 a month. We’re talking about babies who run through a can of formula every two to three days … and depending on the size, each can is $40 to $50.”

She still had to use the program to feed her son for a period of time after she began practicing law, she said, something she thinks people who believe stereotypes about women on WIC may be surprised to hear.

“The price of formula is absurd…. It’s going to impact you financially. And that’s even for people who are running businesses, people with advanced degrees. I mean, it’s costly,” she said. “No matter which way you look at it, WIC is not a massive welfare check. This is about keeping babies fed.”

It’s not just baby formula: WIC provides specific stipends each month – typically less than $50 per person – designated for certain foods, mostly fruits, vegetables, bread, milk and a few other basics. For some families, this is the only way fresh produce makes it to the table.

WIC helps single moms access fresh foods

Ashley Blair, 34, a research assistant and aspiring vegan chef in Memphis, Tennessee, uses WIC mostly for fresh fruits and vegetables for her children, Jayleigh, 6, and Jayce, 2. If WIC benefits end, she’ll have to find additional work to fill the gap in the budget, which means less time with her children.

“WIC helps my family a lot. We are a plant-based family, so having access and being able to have that dollar amount for the fresh fruits and vegetables is very important for me because I make our food from scratch,” she said.

“If it were to stop, it would be very heartbreaking and very hard to navigate through because as a single mother of two children, it is hard to try to find healthier food items for them to receive,” she said.

She said the WIC benefits are a “necessity” for the family.

“We would just have to pinch pennies and cut something else out when there’s sadly almost nothing to cut out,” she said. “I will have to do what I can to put food on our table.”

A tough decision: rent, lights or food

Both Trent and Lawson said they would be faced with choosing which bills to pay partially or not at all next month in order to keep food on their tables without assistance. And that doesn’t take into consideration costs like coats, boots and clothes for the coming winter months or the rapidly approaching holidays.

This worry was echoed in thousands of comments under a post Avalos made, offering to try to help moms who rely on WIC.

“For many women, this is not optional. They’re having to choose now between paying their electric bill or feeding their baby, I mean, at that point, we’re looking at a crisis,” said Avalos. “Ensuring babies have nutrition is among the most basic responsibilities of a functioning society. So it’s really disappointing that this is happening in our country right now.”

Lawson agreed, pointing out the large number of SNAP and WIC recipients who are young children, older adults and working people.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that there is fear and panic among moms and families across the United States of America right now,” said Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director of MomsRising, an organization of 1.2 million active members, with moms and their families representing every state in the nation. “People are extraordinarily concerned about putting food on the dinner plate, especially as we’re coming into Thanksgiving. This is particularly disastrous.”

Contributing: Sarah Wire, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SNAP, WIC cutoff would hit single mothers hard: ‘Looking at a crisis’