At the onset of the pandemic, as tens of millions of Americans found themselves suddenly out of work and food bank lines stretched for miles, Congress passed lifeline legislation to keep people in distress fed. The emergency spending injected billions of extra dollars into food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
A year later, President Biden boosted those expanded benefits to ensure they went to the lowest-income participating households. Thanks in part to that aid and other assistance programs launched or expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic, food insecurity avoided the sharp increase that occurred during the Great Recession.
But at the end of this past month, the pandemic-era expanded SNAP benefits expired for more than 30 million people in 35 states and territories, slashing the average participant’s monthly food assistance from around $251 to $169, with some groups suffering much steeper benefit cuts. Food banks are once again bracing for a surge in need, with one in Kentucky reporting a mile-long line days after the cuts. Advocates fear that the loss of the extended benefits — which were killed by a congressional deal made in December to keep the government running — could send millions of additional Americans off the “hunger cliff.”
And while Biden’s proposed spending budget announced earlier this month includes funding for breakfast and lunch in low-income school districts and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, the budget has zero chance of passing the Republican-controlled House intact. Indeed, the House GOP has its sights set on restricting SNAP access and reducing its benefits,…
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