The impact of Covid-19 on food scarcity and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs for the next two years, according to Dottie Rosenbaum
The decrease comes with the end of a Covid-19 emergency policy that increased SNAP benefits to the maximum level for every recipient. The benefits had already expired in 18 states.
Thirty-two states are still giving the boost and benefits will return to normal levels in March. In South Carolina, benefits return to normal this month. The emergency allotments were already over everywhere else.
Every household in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as food stamps are formally known, will see their monthly benefits shrink by at least $95. Monthly reductions of $250 or more could be experienced by some larger families according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
States with more households closer to the edge of that benefit “cliff” will see the largest average loss of benefits. Household benefit losses are more than $200 a month in Hawaii, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
But even for the households losing the minimum increase of $95, the decrease represents a substantial change to their monthly benefits. The impact on federal nutrition assistance programs will be felt, according to Dottie Rosenbaum, director of federal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Every family will be affected by food scarcity, but not every family will be affected equally. The data from the US census bureau indicates that households with children and black people are more likely to experience food scarcity.
Families already feeling the pressures of inflation are going to face more difficulty in paying for groceries after the temporary boost ends.
“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.
If you start it it will reduce harm, so there’s no way to end it. With a strong economy, we are able to absorb the increased hardship, so that is good news.
“It’s something that people are going to notice,” said Dottie Rosenbaum, director of federal SNAP policy at the center. “It’s $3 billion a month that’s going to food that’s not going to be there anymore.”
The food banks and pantry, already stretched thin by increased demand due to the surge in grocery prices, are anticipating a new spike in need.
The latest federal data shows that more than 40 million Americans received food stamps in November. 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.
The head of Policy and partnerships at Propel said that food stamp recipients in states that have terminated the program are feeling the pinch.
Those who live in these states report higher rates of skipping meals, eating less, relying on others for meals and visiting food pantries than their peers in states that continued the emergency allotments, she said, citing Propel’s monthly surveys of its more than 5 million users.
The monthly boost has given Pam Ford more money to buy food for her two boys, who are 4 and 1. She started using her monthly stipend to purchase food for future meals after she heard about the end of the program.
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Mexican dishes such as beans and rice will be one of the ways that the Cleveland resident will stretch out her supplies. She wants to serve more breakfast and dinner meals.
The emergency allotments kept 4.2 million people out of poverty in 2021, lowering poverty by nearly 10% and child poverty by 14%, according to an Urban Institute study.
The public health emergency will end on May 11 and some food stamp recipients may face additional obstacles once it is over. The time limit for certain adults without disabilities, the expansion of eligibility for certain college students and additional flexibilities for states will all end at that time.
Ford was going to a local food pantry to get ready for the end of the boost. Some anti-hunger groups expect other to do the same.
There is a hunger crisis in America and it is transitioning from a crisis to a crisis, according to Vince Hall, chief government relations officer at Feeding America.
“It was just something that happened suddenly and jarringly to families that are already struggling to afford the basic essentials of life, like rent and gasoline and health care and, of course, food,” Hall said.
December saw a 40% increase in demand compared to the same time last year at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Between a third and half of that jump was likely due to the state ending the emergency allotments last summer, said Kyle Waide, CEO of the nonprofit, which provides nearly 10 million pounds of food a month to almost 700 community partners, including pantries, senior centers, schools and shelters, in Georgia.
“If you’re someone who lacks basic needs, every dollar matters.” It allows you to get a little bit more nutrition for your family,” Waide said.
Carlis Phares says with a reduced benefit she’ll have to rely on some basics from the food bank. “I think there’s going to be a whole lot of people going to the food banks,” she says.
Phares says that her main source of income is Social Security, which has not been keeping up with the increase in rent and other expenses. The boost in SNAP allotments helped her eat well, and she kept her Social Security money for other things. She will have to do more with less.
“I’m going to figure out how to make it stretch,” Phares says. One strategy to save money is to cut back on meat and fresh produce and stock up on cheaper foods, such as crackers, bread and rice, she says. But Phares knows this isn’t good for her.
“The cheapest stuff is the less healthy stuff,” Phares says. I gained a lot of weight when I ate crackers and starches, the cheaper stuff. And now that I’ve gotten myself to a better weight, I’m going to have to figure that out,” she says.
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Even so, in 2020, at the start of the pandemic, nearly 9.5 million older adults, ages 50 and up, were considered “food insecure,” meaning they sometimes struggled to afford all the food they needed, according to an AARP analysis. No Kid Hungry says 9 million children live in food-insecure homes. At some point in the year, 10% of U.S. households experienced food insufficiency.
“SNAP remains our most powerful tool for combating hunger,” Rosenbaum says. “It’s found to be linked to improved health, education and economic outcomes and to lower medical costs,” she says.
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. About 1 in 5 children in the US are obese.
The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Food and Nutrition Security Task Force recommends strengthening food and nutrition security through the farm bill, including expanding the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program that gives SNAP recipients more money to buy fruits and vegetables.
This is similar to the Double Up Food Bucks program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture which gives double the benefits when buying produce at farmers markets. Retailers should be required to sell more healthy foods in stores, according to another idea.
The farm bill, which is typically re-authorized every five years, is set to expire at the end of September. It’s a huge piece of legislation that governs everything from farm subsidies to nutrition programs.
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 said that one could use their SNAP benefits at their local farmers markets as well as create a food pharmacy to purchase healthy food to help improve their health outcomes.
In the meantime there are still many people in need. Even after emergency benefits ceased, the need for Mid-Ohio Food Collective’s services continued to increase.