Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians stand to lose food stamps or see their benefits reduced under three sets of changes to the program being advanced by the Trump administration, state officials said this week.

One draft rule proposed in October to set a national standard utility allowance when determining monthly food stamp benefits would hurt Pennsylvania and potentially reduce the monthly benefit for 775,000 households in the state, Pennsylvania Human Services Secretary Teresa Miller said.

Miller said roughly 90,000 Pennsylvanians could lose their eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Program, known as SNAP, when a rule takes effect that limits states from exempting work-eligible adults from having to maintain steady employment to receive benefits.

The rules will take effect in April.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue last week criticized the 80-year-old food stamp program as becoming a “way of life” for too many Americans.

Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration opposes all three changes, saying the federal government is simply taking away benefits without helping people improve their circumstances.

“How does taking away someone’s food budget help them get a job?” Miller told a Capitol news conference Tuesday. “How does removing assistance help anyone toward self-sufficiency? It doesn’t, it only creates more challenges and barriers for people who already experience significant barriers.”

We agree.

According to U.S. Census data from 2017, 8.4 percent of Butler County residents live below the poverty guidelines.

And about 44 percent of Butler Area School District students receive free and reduced lunches for various reasons, including SNAP eligibility, according to Kara Droney, a spokeswoman for the district.

Nationwide, the food-stamp cuts could affect up to 5.3 million households, a recent analysis found.

For someone with no income, food stamps provide the equivalent of up to $192 per month in food for one person, or $642 per month for a family of four.

The cuts would push more people from food stamps at a time when the program is already shrinking. About 36 million people now receive aid from the program, down from about 40 million in 2018.

Pushing people from the program would also pare the program’s roughly $60 billion in annual spending by about $4 billion per year, the Urban Institute estimates.

While Perdue’s statement that cutting back on the food stamp program will help move people “from welfare to work” may have some credence, there are many households in our county that rely on the program to put food on the family table.