Battle over SNAP benefits impacting local food pantries

Date: 11/20/2020

WESTERN MASS – There is an ongoing battle over who is eligible to receive emergency food aid amid the pandemic.

Congress passed a $200 billion coronavirus relief bill, Families First Coronavirus Response Act, in March. Part of this legislation required the USDA to distribute emergency allotments of benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), in states where there is a declaration of emergency in addition to the federal declaration.

Rather than distribute the aid to all SNAP recipients, the Trump Administration’s Agricultural Department moved to block the distribution of the emergency funds to SNAP recipients who have been receiving the maximum level of benefits, and instead bring all SNAP families to the maximum level. For a family of four, the maximum benefit level is $680, or $1.88 per meal.

While those collecting a lesser amount of SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, will be given an increase in their allowance, the recipients who make the least amount of money, and therefore receive the most assistance, will not see any increase to their food budgets.

“These are very vulnerable populations,” said Andra Tomsa. She is the founder of Spare, a national nonprofit that developed an app, which rounds up grocery and restaurant purchases to the nearest dollar and donates the money to food banks of food security programs. Spare is looking to partner with food security organizations and businesses in western Massachusetts. Tomsa said that the average app user donates $15 per month in spare change. She said if 34 users shopped at participating grocery stores and restaurants, it would equal $500 in donations to food banks and pantries.

Tomsa noted that the decision to limit the SNAP aid also hurts the economy in the long run.

“Every dollar of SNAP yields $1.50 in grocery sales,” she said. “You’re forcing people off of grocery lines and onto food bank lines.”

Christina Maxwell, director of programs at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, said, “They’re essentially leaving the poorest people out of receiving [the emergency food aid].”

Maxwell said that the food pantries that the food bank serves have seen an influx in recent months. The number of people that the organization served in August was 18 percent higher than in the same month in 2019. In September, an average of almost 114,000 individuals sought food assistance across western Massachusetts. For almost 20,000 of these people, it was their first time using a feeding site.

Feeding America, the nonprofit organization that works with food banks nationwide, released statistics this month that “one in six individuals and one in four children are estimated to become food insecure across Western Massachusetts by the end of this year,” in large part due to business restrictions in place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

“When people lose their jobs, they often have no choice but to seek out assistance. The Food Bank and its local partners are here to provide healthy food to anyone who needs it as well as assist with applying for federal SNAP benefits,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell praised the Department of Transitional Assistance for taking steps to make the SNAP application process more simple, which she said it is currently not.

But the best way to address the problem on a national level, Maxwell said, is for the Senate to pass the Heroes Act. That legislation, which passed the House of Representatives in October but has stalled in the Senate, includes provisions for restarting the $600 stimulus for those on unemployment, increasing SNAP benefits by 15 percent and supporting school meals programs.

Other parts of the legislation that are not directly related to food insecurity include funding for childcare, eviction protection and the earned-income tax credit. “Things that can help people afford food,” Maxwell said.

At the state level, Maxwell said that while legislators have “been really tremendous” in addressing food security issues, the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP), which funds the food banks, needs to be increased.
 

“Our distribution numbers have gone way up in terms of the pounds of food we’re distributing,” Maxwell said, and the funding must rise to meet that need.

Executive Director Andrew Morehouse said in a press release on the topic, “We rely on the public sector for about half of our food inventory. Yet, the Commonwealth still hasn’t passed a budget for this fiscal year and the federal government isn’t likely to approve further and desperately needed economic stimulus funding until after the presidential inauguration in January.”

But, Tomsa believes that there are things people can do now to help. Because SNAP has received bipartisan support over the years, she said that citizen engagement and contacting lawmakers can move the needle on the issue of SNAP allocation. “Urge your local representatives. Be loud and make your voices heard,” she said.