Emergency additional Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that were put in place amid the Covid pandemic are set to expire in March.
Food pantries—especially those in rural areas—are reportedly scrambling across 32 states where the SNAP benefits are scheduled to lose their additional funding. Anywhere from $95 to $250 per month was added to the program’s pre-pandemic average of $200 or so a month. Currently, for every dollar worth of groceries a food bank distributes to a community, SNAP delivers $9.
Nationally, SNAP provides help to more than 42 million people each year. Officials estimate that families will see a 30-40% decrease in SNAP payments when the emergency benefits are halted.
A study published by the Urban Institute estimated that SNAP emergency benefits helped more than four million people stay above the poverty line in late 2021. The study found that Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic people saw the biggest reduction in poverty levels.
The expiration of the SNAP supplemental benefits will come roughly two months before President Biden is scheduled to officially end the national emergency and the public health emergency for Covid-19 on May 11.
