When the economy took a hit after COVID-19 hit, millions of people turned to the program to help. Congress responded by increasing funding for SNAP to cover additional participants and also providing a temporary 15% increase in monthly benefits. A new Pandemic-Electronic Benefit Transfer program has been created to provide additional support to SNAP participating families who have lost access to healthy meals when their school or child care facility they closed. And regulatory changes have eased eligibility requirements and made it easier for participants to use their benefits online. Combined with additional economic support such as the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, this strategy reflects the link between financial security and food security, and has had a positive impact.
Going forward, the Urban Institute estimates that a temporary increase in SNAP benefits — along with direct cash payments, enhanced federal unemployment insurance benefits, and an opening Child Tax Credit wide — will contribute to a staggering reduction in poverty by 2021. But what about 2022 and beyond? How can we make better use of SNAP in the long run? Because even with these short-term supports, we haven’t reached the full potential of our program to help those in need.
That is an interesting point. So to say, what have we ‘left on the table,’ when it comes to SNAP?
SNAP benefits are a lifesaver for program participants. But before benefits temporarily increased by 15%, in 96% of US counties, the average SNAP benefit was not enough to cover the cost of an average meal, with the highest gap seen in the whole urban area. have higher costs and are smaller than rural counties. And even with that bump, which expires at the end of September, average SNAP benefits still not enough to cover the average cost of meals in more than 40% of US counties, with significant differences in food prices still playing an important role in how far a family’s benefits can go. where. Regardless of where participants live, SNAP benefits should be enough to cover food costs and ensure families can afford healthy purchases. And that’s a big reason why the USDA seizes the moment to take a real game-changing step: updating the Frugal Food Plan.
Tell us about the Thrifty Food Plan. I imagine a lot of people might not even know what it is.
I think you’re right: The Savings Food Plan is pretty vague. But it’s actually extremely important because this is the mechanism the USDA uses to calculate SNAP benefits for participants. The Thrifty Food Plan takes into account a variety of metrics to make those calculations, from food costs to dietary guidelines to the nutritional content of certain foods. It’s been around since 1975, but as the USDA notes, the plan’s purchasing power has never changed since it was founded.
So the USDA has used the authority it was given in the most recent Farm Bill to update and modernize the Thrifty Food Plan, and the results have been transformative. Thanks to these updates, the average SNAP benefit will increase by about 25% from the pre-pandemic average, increasing the average benefit per participant from $121 to $157.
An extra $36 a month may not seem like much at first, and it’s not a panacea at all, but it makes a huge difference. Most SNAP benefits are for households with incomes at or below the poverty line. Many families run out of SNAP benefits before the end of a certain month; more than 80 percent of SNAP benefits are used within the first two weeks of receipt. That makes it especially difficult to buy food for the next fortnight before the next month’s allotment is distributed. This extra dollar will go a long way in filling that gap, and freeing families from being forced to make impossible choices between food, rent and medicine. .
What does the future of SNAP look like? Where does the show go from here?
One of the lessons of the pandemic is that we cannot be satisfied with the reduction of poverty or hunger alone; Our goal should be to remove these conditions for good. So while it’s impossible to overstate the impact of a permanent benefit increase that goes into effect on October 1, there’s still more we can do. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports a range of additional steps to further strengthen SNAP, including ensuring that all eligible people — particularly immigrants, people of color, and rural residents — have access to easy access to the program; expand eligibility to include more people; expanding nutrition incentive programs to help participants buy healthy food; and remove the lifetime ban from participating in SNAP for convicted drug offenders.
I am proud of the work RWJF has been involved in over the years advocating for SNAP participants and adding to the research base that shows how effective the program is. This week will mark a major milestone for the show, and it should be properly organized. But much remains to be done to strengthen and modernize our nutrition support programs and policies. And that’s why we just started.
The Healthy Eating Study, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is funding research focused on how COVID-19 related relief and recovery policies and programs to childhood obesity, diet quality, food security and other related child and family health outcomes. REGISTERED LOAN
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