In March 2025, No Kid Hungry launched a SNAP Parent and Caregiver Advisory Council with implementation assistance from the National Parent Leadership Institute. This council’s focus is on informing No Kid Hungry’s SNAP strategies and lending a parent and caregiver perspective to our work. This blog is the first in a series of profiles on each of the nine council members in our SNAP Parent and Caregiver Advisory Council.
Meet Passion Rutledge
Passion and her partner are raising twin 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old in Little Rock, Arkansas. To be closer to family, they moved from Baltimore and can now stretch their budget further.
Since moving to Little Rock, Passion and her family have grown to love visiting the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, which honors the legacy of West 9th Street—a once-thriving Black business district that stood as the cultural and economic heart of African American life in the city. Though much has changed due to urban renewal and shifting demographics, the echoes of that vibrant community still resonate, especially in neighborhoods near the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where Passion now resides. Today, Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses continue to shape the area, contributing to a community rooted in resilience, history, and cultural pride.
When Passion met her partner and joined their family, she talked about learning how to make healthy replacements for her children’s favorite meals, like pizza and tacos. She made an almond flour pizza dough, cauliflower wings, and tested vegan cheeses for her children who are sensitive to dairy. Passion is serious about feeding her children healthy meals they love and being open to experimentation to try and find the right mix of nutritious and delicious. This focus on healthy, tasty meals has been possible with the assistance of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
"SNAP enabled and empowered me to buy healthier food with SNAP in ways that I couldn’t afford otherwise. I felt obligated to pay all our other bills first and had a very small budget for food leftover. SNAP really increased our food budget to allow us to meet our family’s needs."Passion Rutledge
- SNAP Parent and Caregiver Advisory Council Member
Passion’s family lived across the street from a farmers market for a while, and without transportation, that was their primary source of food resources. Farmer’s markets and online ordering allowed them to receive foods that met their needs, but the higher prices of these accessible foods wouldn’t have been possible without SNAP assistance.
Programs like Double Up Food Bucks support SNAP participants to purchase fresh, local fruits and vegetables by doubling their SNAP dollars at participating farmers markets. Without incentive programs like Double Up Food Bucks, the only affordable grocery options within walking distance would be gas stations and dollar stores, which have less options. This limited access to grocery stores is one of the reasons why Passion is unhappy with Arkansas’s decision to request a SNAP waiver to restrict food options for Arkansas SNAP participants.
The USDA approved Arkansas’s 2025 waiver restricting the purchase of soda, sugar sweetened beverages, and candy. This restriction goes into effect on July 1st, 2026.
In theory, limiting sugar and junk food intake sounds good, but for families in rural areas, these restrictions only limit their ability to access food. Corner stores and smaller grocers may struggle to track and enforce which foods are no longer SNAP eligible and may drop out of the SNAP retailer program. This means there could be even fewer grocery options in rural communities. Healthier foods may also mean a higher price tag along with a longer distance to travel to access stores that have more food options.
“When there are only four corner stores in walking distance, what are you to do? When you have a limited budget sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Where is my neighbor going to go to buy anything if they can’t walk to a store and find food accessible on SNAP? What will they afford when their dollars don’t go as far?”
Passion admits her family will be less affected by these SNAP restrictions than most. She has already done the hard work of finding healthy alternatives, has access to transportation, and, in her new career, is making more money to cover the increased food costs that go above and beyond their SNAP funds.
Passion’s career is focused on farm to school and introducing children to fresh fruits and vegetables early and often.
Passion does not believe the combination of new Arkansas restrictions and the recent defunding of SNAP nutrition education will lead to healthier diets.
“It’s important if you want people to eat fruits and vegetables you have to teach them to cook with those items. Restrictions don’t change people’s habits they just make life harder. SNAP dollars allowed me the freedom to re-learn to cook in a safe way.”Passion Rutledge
- SNAP Parent and Caregiver Advisory Council Member
Passion is grateful that SNAP funds opened doors to healthier food options for her family and wants to keep those options open for other families in her community. Even with these restrictions, she still sees a positive side, saying we should look to resilient communities in times of need.
“I’m not someone who thinks all is lost and all is doomed, just because the community I lived in and that I grew up in and the community that raised me always had to be resilient. We need to be looking to Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic communities in times of need. There are people out there doing great things in spite of not having the funding and not having the support and those are the people we need to be looking to as examples right now.”
Passion encourages others to look to the resilient communities in their life to make the most of their SNAP benefits. Learn to cook from the community leaders, grow fresh fruits and vegetables in your backyard or community gardens, and support local farms and businesses. We should all look to create community to support each other in challenging times.