The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has helped feed low-income Americans for decades.
In an effort to fight stigma about the food assistance program, lawmakers removed references to "food stamps" in 2008. Still, misconceptions about SNAP and its recipients remain, and Snopes has dispelled various rumors related to that. For example, we debunked a claim that people can use food stamps to buy marijuana and determined a video of people supposedly rioting after the government cut off food stamps was generated by artificial intelligence.
As the country's largest anti-hunger initiative, rumors about policies that may affect SNAP benefits often spread widely on social media. In late 2025, a U.S. government shutdown disrupted SNAP benefits, leading us to fact-check whether the USDA prohibited discounts for SNAP recipients during the shutdown and if Democrats voted against funding the food assistance program.
Here are 11 of the rumors we've looked into about SNAP.
