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In Their Own Words
Pennsylvania Could Lose SNAP. Here’s One Way to Save It
A Sweetened-Drink Tax May Raise Revenue Statewide While Improving Health
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The following excerpt is from an op-ed originally published in PennLive on September 23, 2026.
Pennsylvania faces a harsh reality: The federal government has made the largest cuts to SNAP in recent history. It will only get worse. Pennsylvania will need to find more than half a billion dollars a year to keep its largest anti-hunger program and prevent more people from using food pantries.
Maintaining the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is critical because more families are going hungry now than at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s why Pennsylvania should place a tax on the distributors of sweetened drinks and use the tax revenue to support SNAP. As researchers who have studied nutrition and hunger for more than two decades, we believe the tax will ensure that more Pennsylvanians do not go hungry while helping the state economy thrive.
The federal 2025 Reconciliation Act has already slashed the number of SNAP recipients in Pennsylvania by 12% after imposing new rules. Starting next month, the law will enter a dangerous new phase by requiring states to cover 75% rather than 50% of SNAP’s administrative costs. This will cost the Commonwealth an extra $130 million annually.
Read the full op-ed here.
Authors
Christina Roberto, PhD
Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Professor, Medical Ethics and Health Policy and Director, Center for Food & Nutrition Policy, Perelman School of Medicine
Alyssa J. Moran, ScD, MPH
Deputy Director, Center for Food and Nutrition Policy
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