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“What is going to happen when the food we stored runs out? We have little space at home which makes it more difficult, all of us at home in a small space, but it’s a situation that we’re just trying to live through. God willing, it will be over soon.”
In a new paper from CBPP and LIFT, a human service agency that uses a goal-oriented, holistic approach to partner with members to increase their income and wealth over the long term, we feature stories from Black and Latina women. These women have long faced high rates of poverty, unemployment, poor health conditions, and material hardship, due largely to institutional racism and sexism, and the current health and economic crises have exacerbated these conditions.
Key relief measures enacted so far during the pandemic, such as expansions of unemployment insurance and food assistance and stimulus payments, have mitigated hardship for some families but left others behind.
Food assistance, aka SNAP benefits, are now reaching 6 to 7 million more people than before the pandemic, but millions of people are still food insecure and making hard decisions such as paying for rent, medicine, transportation, or putting food on the table.
Policymakers are currently considering what the next COVID-19 relief legislation should include, and increasing SNAP’s maximum benefits by 15 percent, is a no-brainer. These benefits would reach even more low-income people, many of whom are struggling with food insecurity. This increase is also one of the highest bang-for-the-buck measures for economic stimulus to help support the economy.
“The little that we have saved has been used up... as you know food prices have spiked, [food stamps] aren’t enough. Sometimes we run out of money after 20 days, so the food pantry helps us. I give the kids a lot of fruits and vegetables but sometimes we have to go a week or so without yogurt for the kids, waiting for SNAP to come in.”
Read: LIFT Voices Describe Hardships Among Black and Latina Mothers in Pandemic
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