New SNAP certification rules for retailers could hurt small corner stores, advocates warn

With tens of thousands of people in Illinois already losing their SNAP benefits due to new stricter eligibility rules that went into effect this month, it could also soon get tougher for stores to get certified to accept food stamp benefits.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday announced stores and farmers' markets will need to sell a lot more healthy food if they want to be certified to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits come the fall.

While many grocery stores and produce markets have nothing to worry about, corner stores that only sell a sliver of healthy products are nervous they might lose SNAP customers who make up a huge percentage of their business.

At Family Food Inc. in Little Village, customers can find Apple Jacks cereal, but no apples; lemon cake mix, but no lemons, and strawberry flavored slushies, but no strawberries.

They do sell a handful of avocados, onions, potatoes, and bananas, but the shelves carry lots more ramen, potato chips, and other packaged processed foods than fresh fruits and vegetables.

For 30 years, Baltazar Enriquez, who is friends with the owners, has used the corner store in a pinch for milk and eggs and diapers.

Enriquez said 40% of the store's business comes from SNAP benefits, and if they lose that, they won't be able to make a profit.

SNAP certification will soon require stores to sell at least seven varieties of items across four categories of staple foods: protein, grains, dairy, and fruits and vegetables. It more than doubles the requirement of available foods, emphasizes more whole foods, and increases the perishable food requirements, while eliminating loopholes that have allowed stores to count certain snack foods toward their staple food requirements.

The federal government said the goal of the new rules are aimed at making Americans healthier, but Enriquez said many small businesses won't be able to afford to keep up with the new requirements.

"Little corner stores, ma and pa shops, don't have the money to buy the refrigerators, don't have the place to store fruits and vegetables," he said. "This will definitely break corner stores and ma and pa businesses," he said.

Nate Harris, CEO of the Illinois Fuel & Retail Association, which lobbies on behalf of convenience stores, said the new rules will severely limit the number of retailers who can accept SNAP benefits.

"So consumers ultimately are going to have less options," he said.

Fewer options will mean wider food deserts and more hurdles for those already struggling to put food on the table.

"They're now going to go farther and get on public transportation to get to a grocery store in order to get the same goods that they would be able to previously get at a convenience store," Harris said.

The announcement of the new SNAP certification rules for retailers comes less than a week after as many as 150,000 people in Illinois lost their SNAP benefits due to new, stricter eligibility rules in the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill, which requires users prove at least 20 hours per week of work, volunteering, or training to remain eligible.