WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's FY 2019 budget proposal calls for massive cuts to the program that provides more than 42 million Americans with food stamps.
The budget also floats the idea of new legislation that would require able-bodied adults to work or participate in a work program in order to receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The president's budget would reduce the SNAP program by roughly $213 billion over the next 10 years.
The budget calls for a $17 billion reduction in 2019, and proposes "a bold new approach" to administering SNAP that will include a combination of traditional food stamps and packages of "100 percent American grown foods provided directly to households."
Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the proposed cuts to SNAP account for nearly 30 percent of the program.
She said the proposal, if enacted, "would be devastating for the one-in-eight Americans who use SNAP to put food on the table every day."
"It would reduce benefits and undercut the program's efficiency and effectiveness," she said.
In Knoxville, Patricia Neal is a SNAP recipient and has plenty of questions for the program. She said her monthly $15 benefits go toward fruits, vegetables and milk.
"There's a lot of special diets, and besides that, the logistics," Neal said.
Elaine Streno, the executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank, sees it differently. Second Harvest provides food to hundreds of food banks across 18 East Tennessee counties, so Streno understands the area's need for food.
"If we could look at the system and make it better, provide healthy food, take the abuse component out altogether, I applaud that. I just don't know if it's going to take away someone being able to go to the grocery story and being able to buy what they need," Streno said.