There wasemic food assistance that held back hunger
The End of Pandemic Emergency Allotments and the Implications for Family Food Security and the Recovery of the American Redundancy
The government funding package passed late last year included a vote to end the Pandemic Emergency allotments. The legislation also created a permanent summer benefits program to provide funds to the families of some 30 million children to buy groceries in place of school meals during the break.
Thirty-two states plus D.C., Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still providing the boost; there, benefits will return to pre-pandemic levels in March. Benefits return to normal in South Carolina this month. Emergency allotments had already ended everywhere else.
This month, an estimated 16 million households receiving SNAP benefits in 32 states and Washington, DC, will see their benefits decrease by at least $95 monthly, according to estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research and policy institute.
States with more households closer to the edge will have the larger average loss of benefits. Hawaii, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin will all have household benefit losses that are more than $200 a month.
The director of federal SNAP policy for the institute says this change will increase hardship, especially given the modest amount of regular benefits, which are only about $6 per person per day.
Although every SNAP participant will be affected, food scarcity does not affect every family equally. The US Census Bureau reported that black households are more likely to experience food scarcity.
With the end of this “temporary boost,” Rosenbaum says families already feeling the pressures of inflation are going to face more difficulty affording groceries.
“It’s pretty striking that when you look at the Great Recession, we saw increases in food insecurity that were pretty sizeable whereas during the pandemic, food insecurity held steady, and actually reached 20-year lows for families with children, in large part because of SNAP and other Covid relief efforts,” Rosenbaum said.
Although the research indicates that ending this program is likely to increase food insufficiency, short of keeping every SNAP recipient at the maximum benefit level indefinitely, there’s no other option, Whitmore Schanzenbach said.
He said that it is not possible to end it without causing harm. We have a strong economy, so hopefully we’ll be able to absorb the increased hardship because we came out of this pandemic with a strong economy.
“It is something that people are going to notice,” said Director of federal SNAP policy at the center Dottie Rosenbaum. It is $3 billion a month that will go to food that will not be there anymore.
This is leading food banks and pantries, already stretched thin by increased demand due to the surge in grocery prices, to brace for a new spike in need.
More than 42 million Americans received food stamps as of November, according to the latest federal data. Without the pandemic boost, the average food stamp benefit will come to about $6 per person per day in 2023, instead of about $9, according to the center.
In states where the food stamp program is terminated, people feel the pinch, said Taylor, head of policy and partnerships at Propel.
According to her, people who live in states that don’t provide emergency food handouts report higher rates of skipping meals, eating less, and going to a food pantry than people who do.
The $95 a month boost gave Pam Ford the means to purchase more food for her two young sons. Once she heard it was ending, she started using her main monthly benefit of $645 to stock up on steaks, ground beef and canned fish for future meals.
The Cleveland Community Food Bank and the End of a Pandemic War: How Many Families Will You Need? Claudine Phares, a Cleveland resident, plan to save more for dinner
The Cleveland resident is already working on recipes that will take up more of her supplies, such as Mexican dishes with beans and rice. She’s also planning to serve more breakfast meals for dinner.
The emergency allotments dropped poverty by over 10% and child poverty by more than 10%, according to an Urban Institute study.
Some food stamp recipients could face new hurdles after the public health emergency ends on May 11. The suspension of the three-month time limit for certain adults with disabilities and without children who aren’t working, as well as additional flexibility for states to help them manage their workload, will be lifted at that time.
To prepare for the end of the boost, Ford signed up to go to a local food pantry. Many anti-hunger groups expect others to do the same.
A hunger crisis is being transitioned from a crisis to a crisis, according to Vince Hall, chief government relations officer at Feeding America.
It was sudden, and it came as a shock to the families that are already struggling with basic necessities of life, like rent and gasoline and health care.
There was a 40% increase in demand in December at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. The nonprofit, which provides more than 10 million pounds of food a month to more than 700 community partners, believes the state ended the emergency food supply last summer, which may have had a part in the jump.
“If you’re someone who cannot meet your basic needs with your existing resources, every $10, $20 or $30 matters. It allows you to provide more nutrition for your family.
Carlis Phares says she will have to turn to the food bank when she gets a reduced benefit. “I think there’s going to be a whole lot of people going to the food banks,” she says.
Social Security is her main source of income, and while those payments include a cost-of-living adjustment, it hasn’t kept up with the increase in rent and other expenses, Phares says. She was helped eat well and preserve her Social Security money due to the pandemic boost in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Now she’ll have to do more with less.
“I’m going to figure out how to make it stretch,” Phares says. One way to save money is to reduce the use of meat and fresh vegetables, and stock up on cheaper produce, such as crackers, bread and rice. Phares knows this is not good for her.
The less healthy stuff is the cheapest. I gained a lot of weight when I ate the starches, crackers and cheaper stuff. And now that I’ve gotten myself to a better weight, I’m going to have to figure that out,” she says.
Scaling Up Food Programs: Why the Farm Bill is Important for SNAP, USDA, and the Mid-Ohio Food Bank
The number of older adults who “food-insecure,” meaning they sometimes struggled to afford all the food they needed, went up to almost 10 million at the beginning of the Pandemic in 2020. No Kid Hungry says 9 million children live in food-insecure homes and that the group works to end hunger. 10% of U.S. households experienced some level of food-insecurity at some point in 2011.
This year, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill re-authorize the farm bill, which includes a review of the SNAP program, advocates say there’s an opportunity to strengthen the program, especially at a time when diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes are on the rise.
A recent CDC report found 1 in 2 young children in the U.S. don’t eat a daily vegetable, but most consume plenty of sugary drinks. And about 1 in 5 children in the U.S. have obesity.
The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Food and Nutrition Security Task Force thinks that the farm bill should strengthen food and nutrition security, for example by increasing the allowance for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients to buy fruits and vegetables.
The Double Up Food Benefits program from the U.S. Department of AgricultureDouble Up Food Benefits program double the value of SNAP benefits when used to buy produce at farmers markets and other venues Retailers should be standards to encourage a wider variety of healthy foods in stores.
The farm bill, which is typically re-authorized every five years, is set to expire at the end of September. It’s a massive piece of legislation that governs everything from agriculture subsidies to nutrition programs, including SNAP.
Mitchell says there’s lots of momentum — from a wide variety of groups, policymakers to health care organizations — to scale up programs that can be beneficial. Mitchell points to two examples, one being that you can use your SNAP benefits at your local farmers markets, and the other being that you can use your benefits to purchase healthy foods to help improve your health outcomes.
In the meantime there are still many people in need. The Mid-Ohio Food Collective, Ohio’s largest food bank, has seen an increase in the need for its services even before the emergency benefits ran out.
Some groups claim the marked decrease in benefits is a “hunger cliff.” Recipients in 32 states and the District of Columbia are affected this month.
The end to the extra benefits — coupled with the rising costs of food — will be a hardship for many, said Linda Jones, the co-founder of a food distribution nonprofit based in Alabama, one of the states affected by the change this month.
They are already down and out. In an interview with NPR, she stated that they don’t have much to begin with. “And then when you take something else from them and then with the prices going up, it’s just extra hard on them.”
“One thing we know about hunger is that if people are hungry, the fact that the federal government is going to do less about it does not end their hunger,” Vollinger said.
New NJ SNAP Signing Laws Revisited: State-Funded Supplements as a Tool to Help Subsequent Residents Cut Their Incomes
As recipients try to calculate how to spend their limited incomes, the costs are shifted to states, to local governments, and to charities.
Last month, as the end of the federal pandemic-era boost in benefits approached, New Jersey became the first state to pass SNAP legislation in 2023: All beneficiaries in that state will now receive at least $95 in benefits each month, and if the federal government determines you qualify for a lower amount, a state-funded supplement will make up the difference.
Many people can also deduct some housing costs — SNAP allows for a shelter deduction of rent, mortgage payments or other housing costs that exceed half your net income after other deductions. Some states allow recipients to deduct the costs related to living in a homeless shelter.
If you are trying to find a job or looking for a school or training position, there are certain medical costs that can be deductible. You may deduct legal child support payments if you owe them.
Now is a good time to reexamine those costs as prices have gone up over the past two years, even if you took all this into account when applying for SNAP.
It isn’t going to make up for the entire cliff, but it can make a difference in the size of the cut that households are having.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161417967/snap-benefits-food-stamps
Preliminary Results of the 2016 Pandemic Associated Disorder Epidemic Program (PARE): Can You Apply to SNAP Families?
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant and Children, known as WIC, can be used to qualify children up to the age of 5. See if you qualify here.
A program for low-income people who are at least 60 years old that provides vouchers for fresh produce at farmers markets is available to them.
Many schools gave free meals to all of their students during the outbreak but ended it last fall in most states. You can call your child’s school to get more information about free lunch and breakfast for kids from SNAP households.
Nonprofit organizations also offer some help. Double Up Foodbucks are programs which double the value of EBT payments when buying fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets across 30 states.
There will be a big increase. Brooke Neubauer said in an interview that she was expecting to serve 15% more people. We’re welcoming them with open arms.
Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks and food pantries, has an online tool that can help you find a local food bank. The USDA has ahunger hotline that connects callers with emergency food providers in their community, government assistance programs and various social services. English speakers can dial 1-866-3HUNGRY, while Spanish speakers can dial 1-877-8-HAMBRE.
