This lesser-known program could keep Oregonians on SNAP, but there aren’t enough slots

Oregon’s Workfare Program has been around since 2018, and it essentially lets people volunteer at a community organization in exchange for the dollar value of their SNAP benefits.

But there are only 27 slots in the program, while nearly 14,000 Oregonians lost SNAP benefits in March because of work requirements. 

When President Donald Trump in July signed his massive tax and spending law, it removed several exemptions to the program’s work requirements, making it so that more able-bodied individuals without children must work, volunteer or receive job training for 80 hours a month to receive SNAP benefits.

Volunteering that many hours isn’t realistic, said David Rubel, a public policy consultant based in New York City. 

“Using volunteers is a serious responsibility for the community organization,” he said. “Volunteers have to be supervised, and 20 hours a week per volunteer means much more staff supervision time.” 

And training programs, he said, are just short-term solutions that usually last no more than three months — the same time period it takes a person to lose SNAP benefits if they haven’t met the work requirements by then. 

Oregon’s Workfare Program, an alternative option, lowers the number of hours needed to meet SNAP work requirements by applying a formula based on the household’s monthly benefit and the minimum wage. Because Oregon’s minimum wage is $15.05, a person would only have to volunteer six hours a week instead of 20 to receive the average monthly SNAP benefit of $180. 

“The difference in hours means a lot,” Rubel said.

The program, however, isn’t widely advertised by the Oregon Department of Human Services, appearing only in a brief worksheet on work requirements. 

Only four organizations in Oregon participate as Workfare sites, offering a total of 27 slots across Oregon, according to Jake Sunderland, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Human Services. 

The organizations participating as Workfare sites include Living Water Fellowship in Tillamook County, the Department of State Lands in Marion County, Siskiyou Field Institute in Josephine County and Rogue Retreat in Douglas County. The state is in the process of adding three additional organizations to the Workfare program, Sunderland said.

“Oregon has always encouraged public and nonprofit organizations to consider participating in the Workfare Program,” Sunderland said. “As more people are required to meet work rule requirements, the need for Workfare participants is greater.” 

Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and neighboring Washington also offer able-bodied individuals without dependents on SNAP a Workfare option. 

“They’re doing it for a few simple reasons,” Rubel said. “They don’t want SNAP recipients to fall off the program, which would hurt families struggling to make ends meet. But also there’s a cost factor. People losing SNAP will become more of a state responsibility, because then the state has to dole out more money for their food pantries.”

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