Malissa Xiong is worried.
A refugee she’s working with from the Democratic Republic of Congo just gave birth to her third child, a boy. The woman is a green card holder. But because she has been in the United States for fewer than five years, she will soon lose access to benefits that help feed her family.
“It’s exciting,” Xiong said of the new baby. “It’s also sad because I can’t help, I can’t provide.”
Federal cuts to programs that provide food benefits to refugees and other immigrants who are legally in the country, but who are not citizens, go into effect Nov. 1. That’s a week and a half after the woman had her son.
“I can’t push her to work. She’s on maternity leave,” said Xiong, a programmer in the workforce division of Asian Services in Action, Inc. “That’s a struggle for her.”
The federal One Big Beautiful Bill, which was signed into law this summer, ends Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits for people who have come to the U.S. under legal refugee, asylum and other programs. They include those who entered the country for urgent humanitarian reasons, like survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence.
More than 1,300 Summit County residents fall under those categories, said Greta Johnson, the assistant chief of staff for Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro. Liv Randall, a communications and development specialist for the International Institute of Akron, said about 12,000 households statewide will lose access to SNAP.
“We’ve already started getting a decent amount of calls from people who are scared,” Randall said. “It’s not like we can fill that gap for all these families. I don’t think food banks can fill that gap. It’s a huge blow.”
Randall said new residents receive the benefits, formerly called food stamps, in order to help them form a foothold in the country while they learn English, figure out transportation and navigate life in a new place. The goal isn’t for families to be permanently dependent on them, she said — but for families that came to the United States because life in their home countries wasn’t safe, “it feels like backstabbing,” she said.
“It is almost like we’re breaking a promise, we’re breaking a trust with the community and turning our backs on them,” she said. “I don’t know how else to put it, other than it’s inhumane.”
‘They are working. It’s not enough’
In a conference room at The Well Community Development Corp. Wednesday night, more than a dozen community leaders gathered to discuss what they could do to help.
They worried that families who had faced food insecurity before they came to the United States would be retraumatized. They questioned whether families would spend money on food, making it harder for them to later pay rent. And they noted that clients who lost their food aid could also lose benefits that help pay for gas and electricity.
“It’s going to affect their mental health,” said Rollin Mukanza, a community developer with Open Arms Ministries. “Their anxiety level’s going up. Two families of 10 came to my office. You can see the fear.”
One single mother with seven children lost $1,100 in monthly food aid, said Stephen Dages, a behavioral health program coordinator with Asian Services in Action, Inc. She works, but her job doesn’t pay enough to feed her family.
“That’s a significant amount,” he said.
Children under 18, the blind and disabled may still get SNAP benefits, Xiong said, but there are a lot of questions she still can’t answer about what benefits will be available and what will not. People who have children who may be eligible will likely need to reapply, but so much is unclear.
Xiong said the federal decision was a way to force people to work, but there was a misunderstanding about the fact that many immigrants who receive food benefits already have jobs — they just don’t pay well enough for people to survive.
“The ends are not meeting,” she said. “Some clients really need the help. They are working. It’s not enough.”
Demand for food is increasing
At the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, Katie Carver Reed said demand for food this year in the eight-county area she serves is already higher than it has been at any point since 2019. In Summit County, more than 122,000 people were served in September, slightly fewer than in September 2024. In October 2024, about 135,000 people were served.
The food bank supports 628 hunger relief programs across Northeast Ohio, said Carver Reed, its vice president and chief operating officer. She said she distributed 40 million pounds of food last year and expects to send out similar amounts through 2026.
State and federal cuts meant the food bank lost funding for between 5 million and 6 million pounds of food, she said, but private donors have made up that gap. The food bank is buying more fresh produce and protein to distribute — in part, because many immigrant families have different dietary preferences and allergies than U.S-born families, she said, and are more likely to eat fresh produce. Mukanza said having halal meat is a priority for some families.
Price and availability drive decisions about what fresh food is offered, Carver Reed said.
Asian Services in Action is considering adding an emergency option to its twice-monthly food pantry, but Xiong said it’s more likely to be dry and canned food than fresh.
She expects to maximize what she can request from the food bank in anticipation of increased need — normally, she orders enough for 40 households, but the last pickup served 51 households. She’s anticipating as many as 70 households will need to be served beginning in November.
‘The whole safety net’ is being pulled
Yecica Viscaya, a legal secretary and receptionist for the International Institute of Akron, has answered a handful of calls from people who are panicking about what to do.
“We don’t have all the answers yet,” she said she tells people. “As an organization, we’re going to figure something out.”
The agencies have only had about two weeks to navigate the change, said Randall with the International Institute, adding stress to the situation. The One Big Beautiful Bill will also likely mean cuts to Medicaid for the same families — but those are likely to go into effect in January, she said, so for now, the focus is on food.
In conversations with families, she’s tried to be empathetic and understanding, said Katelyn Recicar, the International Welcome Center’s office director. She wants to make sure they’re prioritizing paying rent, she said — failing to do that could exacerbate problems further, when there are still food options available.
But Recicar said it’s hard to explain to people why the help they had received is going away, especially when they’re working so hard to understand American systems.
“You feel like you’re the deliverer of bad news all the time right now,” she said. “There’s just a lot of fear.”
At The Well, Pastor James Talbert, from Citizens Akron Church, said he expected these issues to be the new reality for people. The group is planning to meet regularly to look for solutions to help people navigate these ongoing changes.
“This is all obviously horrible,” Talbert said. “It’s the whole safety net that seems to be pulled from under people.”
How to get help
Help finding food is available by calling 211 or on the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank’s website, which has searchable food options by geography and when the facilities are open.
Katie Carver Reed from the food bank said their pantry is available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It also has a popup food truck that travels.
Different programs have different requirements about how often a person can use them, but there is no limit to how many food pantries one can visit. The food bank allows people to use its services once a week.
To access the food bank, people need to provide their name and ZIP code as well as tell providers they do not earn more than 200% of the federal poverty level, which is $31,300 for an individual and $64,300 for a family of four. They do not have to show an ID.
How to give help
Malissa Xiong, with Asian Services in Action, Inc., said many new immigrants won’t eat typical American fare like macaroni and cheese or peanut butter. Instead, she said, fresh produce, vegetable oil and salt are always needed. People also often request basmati and parboiled rice.
Additionally, people can donate money, which can be used to buy culturally appropriate food in addition to clothing and gift cards for gas and groceries.
Some produce that is always in demand includes: Roma and beefsteak tomatoes, red radishes, carrots, cilantro, yellow and purple onions, green onions, cabbage, lemons, limes, redskin potatoes, chili peppers, bitter melon, sugar peas, wax beans, cucumber and lettuce.
For questions about donating fresh food, call Asian Services in Action at 330-535-3263. Fresh food can also be donated to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.