Some of Oregon’s biggest employers have hundreds of employees who earn so little that they qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the federally funded program commonly known as food stamps.
Grocery workers, home care workers, and universities were at the top of a list compiled by Oregon Capital Chronicle, a nonprofit media organization. The Capital Chronicle analyzed SNAP data from the Oregon Department of Human Services showing the number of times employers were listed on SNAP income verification forms in 2025. They found roughly 1,000 companies that were listed at least 25 times, collectively accounting for more than 100,000 food stamp applicants.
Major grocers and retailers made up one fifth of the total, with Safeway and its parent company Albertsons the most listed, followed by Walmart and Amazon. Many Oregon grocery employees work part-time or seasonally, the president of a grocery industry association told the Capital Chronicle.
Oregon Department of Human Services was number four on the list because it’s the employer of record for home care workers who are paid using Medicaid funds.
The Chronicle also found more than 50 Oregon school districts on the 25-or-more list, and the state’s two largest school districts — Portland Public Schools and Salem-Keizer — were listed more than 400 times each.
University of Oregon and Oregon State University were also among the top 10 employers on the list. The explanation, according to an OSU vice president, was that many students have part-time on-campus jobs. College students are eligible for SNAP if they work an average of 20 hours a week and earn as an individual $2,609 or less per month.
Last year’s passage in Congress of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act greatly expanded existing work requirements for food stamp recipients. The program already required able-bodied adults to work or be in school or looking for work. But previously adults 55 and over and parents of children 18 and younger were exempt from that requirement. The bill raised those thresholds to adults 65 and over and parents of children 14 and over.
MORE See the full report here.
