Before the pandemic, the Trump administration tried to cut food stamp benefits from 700,000 Americans.
Amid a deflated economy and sky-rocketing virus, a surprising hero—the food stamp program—is providing peace of mind and food on the table for about 43 million Americans, according to the New York Times. In the first three months of the coronavirus crisis, the federal assistance program saw six million more enrollees and looks to continue expanding in the months to come.
Anyone can apply for food stamps—also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—as they support households with limited income and resources.
“SNAP is the universal safety net,” Diane Schanzenbach, an economist at Northwestern University, told the Times.
From February to May, the program grew by 17%, surging across rural, urban, and suburban demographics, and rising faster in rich counties than in poor ones. Florida and Georgia, both Republican-led states, had the highest increase in caseloads—the program grew 34% in Georgia, with double-digit increases in all 159 counties.
“SNAP is very well suited to quickly meet the needs of low-income individuals,” said Tom C. Rawlings, the state’s director of the Division of Family and Children Services. “It is also pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy.”
In fact, it’s billions. Since March, when Congress temporarily expanded the program by offering all recipients the maximum aid, $60 billion of food spending has been pumped into the economy. Lawmakers acted in defiance of President Donald Trump and his administration, who just last December moved to slash benefits for 700,000 people.
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Arguing that Americans receiving SNAP benefits did not need it given a strong economy and low unemployment, the White House tightened guidelines on how long some residents can receive benefits, and forcing recipients to find jobs or lose benefits. If allowed to go into action amid the coronavirus crisis and attendant economic downturn, close to a million people would have faced hunger.
Advocates from 21 states and New York City, led by the Washington, D.C., Attorney General’s Office, sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP, in January. They were able to temporarily halt the changes just weeks before the rules were set to go into effect, though the case is still making its way through the courts.
“We elected to litigate against this rule before the pandemic was even in play because this rule is unlawful and would have a huge impact on our residents and on the residents of the nation if it were to go into effect, even without the pandemic,” Kathleen Konopka, Washington, DC’s deputy attorney general of public advocacy, explained to The Nation. “The pandemic only amplifies those effects.”
To help address food security, the Democratic-led House of Representatives passed in mid-May the $3 trillion HEROES Act, which includes a large-scale increase in domestic hunger funding. Since then, however, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican-controlled Senate have refused to consider the bill.
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Hunger Free America, a nonpartisan advocacy organization, has erected Hunger Clocks in Senate Republican constituencies, counting the number of days the body’s leadership has refused to act on behalf of voters facing food insecurity.
“It is simply unconscionable that the Senate would not act immediately to help the tens of millions of Americans currently struggling with food insecurity,” Joel Berg, Hunger Free America CEO, said in a statement. “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated that he will not bring the Heroes Act before the Senate for a vote until late July. By doing this, he is denying families and individuals in his home state of Kentucky at least $133 million over the next 16 months to purchase groceries.”
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Nearly 2,500 organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Center for Disability Rights, and The Hunger Project, have called on the Senate to increase SNAP benefits in the next coronavirus relief package, which lawmakers are considering this week. Unless Congress extends the $600 expanded unemployment benefit that’s set to expire at the end of the month, millions more may find themselves having to join the program just to feed their families.
Emiene Wright Emiene Wright is associate editor at Cardinal & PIne. Before that she was on the 24-hour news desk of the Miami Herald and the Detroit Free Press, and her writing has been featured in Crisis, the Charlotte Observer, and Our State magazine.
