Jimmy Wright fears that if the federal government follows through on major cuts to food assistance programs, he’ll have to lay off some of the people who work at his grocery store in Alabama.

At Wright’s Market, an independent grocery store in Opelika, about 35% of the customers use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP.

“It could have a huge impact on our business,” Wright told AL.com “If business drops by 20%, I can’t cut off 20% of my lights or call my insurance company and tell them I’m going to have to reduce what I pay them to compensate. All that’s left is payroll.”

According to the Alabama Grocers Association, SNAP supports 7,800 jobs in the state and $350 million in wages.

Feeding Alabama, a coalition of food banks, estimates that hundreds of grocery stores in the state would close if the funding cuts are passed. And a recent analysis by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy organization, said that 18 counties in the state are at a higher risk for losing their food retailers.

Ellie Taylor, president and CEO of the state grocers association, told AL.com that retailers in low-income communities get upwards of 70% of their sales from SNAP.

A 20% to 30% cut in the program “would lead them to close and likely create food deserts,” she said.

Wright thinks his store can survive the cuts, “to an extent,” since he doesn’t owe any money on his business. But he said other stores that serve a higher percentage of SNAP recipients likely won’t.

“I’m extremely concerned about urban and rural communities, because those stores will be the first to go and we will have an ungodly issue with food access,” he said.

The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Nearly 400,000 households and 333,590 children in the state receive food assistance through SNAP, according to the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

The proposed cuts to the program are part of President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that aims to drastically reduce government spending.

The version of the bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives would cut SNAP’s budget by nearly $300 billion over the next decade. It would also shift 75% of administrative costs to the state, potentially costing Alabama $300 million a year, according to Alabama Arise.

“I don’t know whether we can afford it or not,” said U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor.

“Everybody that’s going to be in state government is going to be concerned about it,” Tuberville told Politico in a brief interview earlier this month.

The Senate’s version of the bill, which Tuberville will eventually have to vote on once it’s finalized, has similar language to the House’s on SNAP cuts.

“There is real reason to worry that the Legislature can’t or wouldn’t provide this additional funding,” said Robyn Hyden, executive director of Alabama Arise, in a news release after the House passed the bill.

“In that case, Alabama would be forced to cut SNAP benefits significantly – or even eliminate the program altogether for nearly 800,000 participants statewide. These cuts would send hunger soaring and devastate the economy in local communities across Alabama.”

‘It’s about people’

Rural counties are at higher risk of losing their grocery stores, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, given that a high percentage of their population is enrolled in SNAP. The group looked at data from the United States Department of Agriculture to identify the 18 counties that are at the highest risk in Alabama.

In those 18 counties, there are 650 retailers that take SNAP, according to the data.

Over half of those counties are in the Black Belt, including Montgomery County, and the rest are in south Alabama. Retailers in Wilcox and Perry counties face the most risk as over 40% of their populations use SNAP.

Taylor, from the Alabama Grocers Association, says she agrees with the center’s analysis.

“I wish that data wasn’t from such a left-leaning group, but I do think it is accurate,” she said in an email to AL.com.

Nationwide, the organization estimates that 27,000 grocery stores and food retailers would be harmed by the cuts.

One way retailers may try to mitigate the cuts is by increasing food prices for everyone, according to the Food Research and Action Center.

“One of the things that we anticipate is, if enough people lose SNAP, what it could create is increased prices in that store to balance their books due to the loss,” said Salaam Bhatti, the SNAP director at the Food Research and Action Center.

But even in that case, Bhatti doubts that raising food prices would help keep a store open.

“Food would become unaffordable even for people at higher income levels,” he said. “If costs go up, a store would likely lose those customers, and so then ultimately they close down.”

“We’re not just going to see food insecurity increase for entire communities,” he added, “we’ll see the loss of jobs, we’ll see negative health outcomes and we will see increased cost of health care.”

About one in five people in Alabama experience food insecurity, meaning they don’t know where their next meal will come from. For every meal that a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine, according to Feeding Alabama.

“It’s really scary to think about how hunger could get a lot worse in Alabama if these cuts pass,” said LaTrell Clifford Wood with Alabama Arise. “Look at places like Perry County, one of the most food insecure places in the country. People there are already driving 30 minutes to the nearest Walmart for food.”

Wright said he won’t raise prices if the cuts go through, fearing his customers would find somewhere else to go if he did.

Even now he sells some of his produce below cost to help his customers “stretch their dollar” as food prices across the country are already on the rise due to inflation.

So instead he’ll have to let go of some of his employees. That’s a painful possibility, since he used to work at the market when he was in school. He saved up enough money to buy it in 1997.

“We’re the place where kids get their first shot,” he said.

And he helps give second chances too, employing three people who graduated from substance abuse programs.

“For me this isn’t about politics, it’s about people,” he said.