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Several federal programs may face budget cuts as the new administration proposes sweeping actions to reduce the federal debt.

Advocates for safety-net programs in Tennessee said the cuts would jeopardize food access, health insurance, and essential services for tens of thousands of people.

Signe Anderson, senior director of nutrition advocacy at the Tennessee Justice Center, said key decisions early next year will significantly affect funding for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. She noted that, on average, about 750,000 Tennesseans per month receive SNAP benefits.

“Tennesseans will have less access to health care and to food,” Anderson said. “Programs that are in place now that offer health care to Tennesseans will become more limited—and the same with the SNAP program, which will become more limited.”

The Tennessee Justice Center is hosting a free webinar today at 11:30 a.m. to discuss how groups across the country are organizing responses to potential cuts and their impacts on communities. More than 1.4 million Tennesseans are enrolled in Medicaid.

Anderson noted another federal program, which provides summer meals to hundreds of thousands of Tennessee children, will expire unless Gov. Bill Lee renews it by Jan. 1. He has indicated he does not plan to do so.

The Summer EBT program provides families with $40 a month during the summer to help pay for food when kids are out of school.

“DHS reported to USDA that nearly 700,000 children participated this past summer,” Anderson said. “Tennessee has been very, very successful in rolling out the program, and we’re one of the only Southeast states last year that participated.”

Anderson emphasized that advocates for maintaining Summer EBT have delivered more than 2,200 petition signatures to the governor’s office. She added that more than $78 million in Summer EBT benefits also boost the local economy through grocery store spending.