Food Assistance

Food and SNAP Assistance Transparency

Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), also called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), helps eligible households buy food. This page explains how funding changes may affect food assistance and local government funding in Cabarrus County.

News

NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson won a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture over new guidelines for administering SNAP. Specifically, the changes were implemented on a timeline that the attorney general claimed was logistically impractical. While the courts ruled in NC’s favor, the legal victory has no practical impact on the continued work that counties are undertaking to implement HR 1 changes to the SNAP program. The ruling may result in a decrease in counties’ previous payment error rates during the contested period of time, but otherwise, they will still need to meet all requirements and timelines outlined in HR 1.

NC Association of County Commissioners SNAP Video

Caseload and Participation Data

Rather than republish figures that can change month to month, this page links directly to the state and federal dashboards where the data lives. This gives you the most current numbers, sourced consistently and transparently. These links provide the latest published reports. Each report has its own reporting period and release date.

FNS Caseload Statistics Reports

NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS). Monthly counts of Food and Nutrition Services (FNS/SNAP) cases and participants, statewide and by county, plus application timeliness and error-rate reporting.

Additional Analysis

SNAP Tracker

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a nonpartisan, national research and policy institute. Its tracker follows state-by-state SNAP participation trends since the 2025 federal reconciliation law took effect. Provided as additional context, not a county or state data source.

Could this impact Cabarrus taxes?

How could this affect local funding? Here's a step-by-step guide on how a new rule could connect SNAP mistakes to the County's sales tax money. This rule may redirect existing local sales tax revenue. It does not itself raise the sales tax rate residents pay.

The US government checks SNAP for mistakes

Each year, the government checks for SNAP payment errors - too much money or too little. Starting in 2028, if NC's mistake rate is 6% or higher, the federal government pays less. NC has to cover the rest.

NC passes some of that cost to counties

A new state law lets NC hold back part of every county's sales tax money to help pay. It would start on October 1, 2027, which is the start of federal fiscal year 2028.

Cabarrus's share depends on our own mistakes

The county’s share follows a state formula. It includes a base assessment of 0.75% of the defined sales tax allocation, plus an additional assessment when payment-error dollars are attributed to the county.

Federal and State SNAP Financial Impact on Local Governments(PDF, 261KB)

NC Association of County Commissioners SNAP Impact Fact Sheet

How much would the state have to pay?

The more mistakes NC makes statewide, the more of the SNAP cost the state has to cover. Below is how much of the SNAP benefit cost the state would have to pay, based on NC's statewide mistake rate.

What could this cost Cabarrus County?

State analysts published an early, county-by-county estimate. Here's ours:

This is only an early estimate for October 2027 to June 2028 based on the 2024-25 revenue period, not a bill. The real cost will depend on future mistake rates - not the numbers used here.

Source: NC General Assembly, Fiscal Research Division, Fiscal Note for Senate Bill 257 / S.L. 2026-41, July 7, 2026. Read the full report (PDF).

There's a second, related cost that isn't part of the sales tax estimate above: the same federal law also shifted more of SNAP's day-to-day administrative cost onto states and counties. Statewide, counties are estimated to owe about $69 million a year for that, on top of the $150 million tied to payment mistakes. NCACC estimates an additional $1,389,852 a year in Cabarrus administrative costs. This is separate from benefit cost sharing and still needs local budget confirmation.

Source: NC Association of County Commissioners, Increased Costs to Counties for SNAP, August 2026 data sheet. Read the full fact sheet (PDF).

Cabarrus County's payment accuracy results

This chart shows how much of Cabarrus's SNAP payments were wrong each year, measured by dollar value - not just the number of cases. Payment errors mean benefits were higher or lower than they should have been. The rate measures dollar-value errors identified through reviews. It is not a fraud rate.

A few things to know about this chart:

• 2026 is based on only 9 cases so far, so it can change a lot.
• The federal rule looks at NC's rate, not just ours. As of March 2026, the statewide rate was 6.89% - still above the 6% limit.
• A "mistake rate" is about dollars, not just how many cases were wrong. In 2024, 2 of 15 cases reviewed had a mistake - but those mistakes add up to 17.30%.