SNAP cuts – A senior executive at Living Fresh Market says new federal work requirements tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill are already shrinking SNAP benefits for roughly a third of the supermarket’s customers. She warns the cuts could force payroll reductions at indepen
Summer is starting out tough for people who depend on SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. known in Illinois as Link in Illinois and still widely called “food stamps.” At Living Fresh Market. a supermarket in the west suburban area. about a third of shoppers rely on SNAP. and the store’s leadership says new federal work requirements included in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill are cutting into the benefits those families use to plan groceries.
The anxiety isn’t theoretical. During last November’s government shutdown. the store’s senior executive. Melody Winston. said she watched families lose access to benefits and then return to checkout lines with uncertainty about what would be left on their cards. She described the tension as customers stood at registers. stressing over balances and making “impossible choices.” She also said the store itself took a financial hit during that period.
For Winston, the stakes are not limited to what ends up on a dinner table. She argues that when SNAP is reduced. neighborhood spending drops too — and that can be the difference between independent supermarkets keeping their doors open or not. She said Living Fresh Market operates on tight margins and already competes with big chains. leaving little room for revenue disruptions.
Those effects, she said, flow outward to the small businesses that feed the community through the store’s shelves. Living Fresh Market carries products from about 100 small local vendors. including teas. meats. seasonings. barbecue sauces. cosmetics. and health-focused products designed to improve the lives of shoppers. When SNAP spending shrinks, Winston said vendors can face canceled purchase orders and a weaker local economy.
Living Fresh Market opened in 2021. Winston said the store reflects the vision of her father, Dr. Bill Winston, founder and senior pastor of the 21,000-member Living Word Christian Center in Forest Park, a west suburb. The store is a 71,000-square-foot supermarket that Winston says is the largest Black-owned supermarket in the nation.
Winston also tied the issue directly to access. When big chains leave because profits don’t work. she said. people end up with fewer affordable grocery options — a dynamic she described as helping form food deserts. In her telling, the change doesn’t happen overnight. Instead. it comes through a series of decisions that steadily erode purchasing power and threaten the businesses trying hardest to feed their communities.
SNAP, Winston said, is far from a narrow program. She pointed to the role it plays for more than 42 million people nationwide. In Illinois, she said about 1.9 million people rely on it. She described SNAP as stabilizing grocery budgets for working families. seniors. and people between jobs — and said it helps keep local communities from falling apart.
At Living Fresh Market. Winston said SNAP supports community events. including monthly free shopping sprees where customers can fill their baskets at no cost. She also said the store organizes monthly vendor showcase events designed to introduce small businesses to new shoppers. She described those events as “joyful. unifying and deeply meaningful. ” and said they’re possible because SNAP helps keep the store strong.
In recent efforts. Winston said political. community. and business leaders have rallied inside the supermarket to educate the public about the impact of SNAP cuts. Her message is that when SNAP is weakened. the “entire ecosystem around it” starts to crumble — families. workers. small vendors. and local businesses.
Winston urged lawmakers to consider what the cuts mean on the ground. insisting that destabilizing neighborhood stores harms the people who live. work. and buy food there. She said she doesn’t want to lay off any employees. She also said she doesn’t want to cut back on local products the store carries or raise prices.
But she said goodwill can’t replace lost revenue. And she warned that decisions made in Washington will show up quickly at neighborhood checkouts. If the federal government does not reverse what she called devastating cuts, Winston said Illinois will need to find an alternative way to fund SNAP.
Her call to action is directed to lawmakers and residents alike. She urged people to contact their state representatives to support SNAP — not only for families who need it to eat, but for neighborhoods that depend on the benefit as an economic lifeline.
Winston is the senior executive of Living Fresh Market.
SNAP Link in Illinois food stamps One Big Beautiful Bill federal work requirements Living Fresh Market Melody Winston grocery jobs local vendors food deserts Illinois