In practice you can just keep your savings in cash and not disclose it.
The idea of food stamps is to give you food when you literally can't buy it yourself, not when you have a couple grand in your bank account.
Yeah it's a dumb idea. Making people spend down their savings when they have no income to pay for food.
What else are savings for then?
Well if you only have $2.5k and no income it's probably going to housing costs.
(Am I here to answer stupid questions...)
The idea of an emergency fund is for unexpected expenses like car repairs or a medical bill. The primary use of SNAP is to supplement an employed person’s income so they are able to afford food.