[ "I dont think people understand how much impact this relief had.
I was finally able to feed my child without the stress, without the
worry, or the tears."]
[[link removed]]

‘BACK TO ONE MEAL A DAY’: SNAP BENEFITS DROP AS FOOD PRICES CLIMB
 
[[link removed]]


 

Lauren Hodges
March 17, 2023
NPR
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ "I don't think people understand how much impact this relief had. I
was finally able to feed my child without the stress, without the
worry, or the tears." _

, Andrew Spear for The New York Times

 

Teresa Calderez has never seen her nails look better.

"They were real split, cracked and dried," she said, fanning out her
fingers. "And I noticed having eaten fresh vegetables and meats, you
know, they look a lot better. They're not pretty, but they're
healthier. And I think your nails say a lot about what your health is
like."

Calderez is 63 and lives in Colorado Springs. Disabled and unable to
work for years, she used to get a little over $20 a month in food
stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as
SNAP
[[link removed]].
That would run out very quickly. But as one of the millions of
Americans who got extra federal assistance during the pandemic, her
balance jumped to $280 a month. She said she was finally able to eat
whenever she felt hungry.

"You know, I feel better. I have a little more energy," she said.

Teresa Calderez says the extra SNAP benefits made a noticeable
difference to her diet and her health.

But that extra money is gone now as the government winds down its
pandemic assistance programs. The boosted benefits expired this month
and payments are dropping by about $90 a month on average for
individuals, and $250 or more for some families, according to
an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
[[link removed]],
a nonpartisan research institute.

Calderez is now back to the minimum monthly payment: just $23 a month.

The reduction comes as food prices in the U.S. continue to rise
[[link removed]].
Without the extra help, many people will go hungry.

"I don't think people understand how much impact this relief had,"
said Raynah, who asked we not use her full name for personal safety
reasons. "I was finally able to feed my child without the stress,
without the worry, or the tears."

Raynah lives in a rural area in southern Oregon. She said that before
the added benefits, she was also getting little more than $20 a month
to feed herself and her son.

"At the beginning of the pandemic he was underweight," she said.

When SNAP payments went up, she was overjoyed to get an extra $500 to
spend on food.

"Throughout the pandemic I was able to supplement his diet with
protein drinks that cost $30, introduce new foods, let him choose and
explore. And he is now on target weight. Even his doctors noticed."

The (dis)comfort zone

Faced with hunger and malnutrition again, people like Raynah don't
have a lot of options.

"There is only one food bank here," she said. "It was already
overflowing, even when the pandemic benefits were available. I can't
even imagine how it will be now."

Food banks aren't a great option for Lisa Clenott, either.

"I would say 90% of it, we can't eat," she said.

Clenott lives in Haverhill, Massachusetts and said she and her two
children have a lot of allergies. They're particularly sensitive to
high fructose corn syrup.

"And that's in everything," she said.

Clenott said the supplemental SNAP benefits were a huge help to her
family and she was able to buy healthy, filling food that worked for
their food sensitivities. But even without stress at the grocery
store, there was plenty of it elsewhere in her life.

"I have to pay the mortgage," she said. "I still co-own the house with
my former husband, who isn't helping me at all. Plus my car is 20
years old and I have to pay for repairs on that."

She said she's been going into debt to cover bills for a while. And
losing the SNAP extras won't help her there.

"I really don't know what we're gonna do," she said. "I've been trying
to get through to the Department of Transitional Assistance but I've
been put on hold for an hour and a half. And their website is ...
well, it is what it is."

"We've seen this before"

Megan Sandel is a pediatrician and co-director of the Boston Medical
Center's Grow Clinic, which focuses on treating malnutrition issues in
kids. She sees a lot of heartbroken parents in her office.

"They're working sometimes two jobs," she said. "They have this, you
know, young child that's not growing the way you would expect on the
growth curve. And the mom will break down in tears and say, 'I just
got my rent bill; landlord is increasing it; I can't keep up. And now
I know that there's going to be one less tool in the toolbox to try
and help this kid grow and get back on the growth curve.'"

Which goes hand in hand with the learning curve.

"In the first three years of life, you are in the most rapid growth
period in terms of brain and body. And so when you're missing out on
key nutrition, it's hard to catch up. It literally can be situations
where we get to kids late and they're starting to struggle in school
or they're not reading on time."

And for hints of long-term effects, look no further than the Great
Recession. After Congress passed the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act in 2009, SNAP benefits went up for all recipients by
at least 13.6%, according to Children's HealthWatch
[[link removed]].
The boost was meant to be temporary, but experts studying the benefits
say it ended too soon to make its intended impact. A policy brief
[[link removed]] by
Children's HealthWatch found:

Under ARRA, SNAP benefit levels were not intended to be adjusted again
until food price inflation caught up with the increase, which was
estimated to occur at the end of 2014...

On November 1st, 2013, monthly SNAP benefits for all program
participants were cut. The total national cut was approximately $5
billion — decreasing the SNAP amount allotted per person from
approximately $1.70 per meal to approximately $1.40 per meal. For a
family of four the monthly benefit decreased by about $36, equivalent
to about 21 meals per month. The effect of the decrease was not offset
by funding other programs because a) young children do not benefit
from school meals as they are not in school and b) school-age children
need to eat nutritious meals outside of school hours as well as at
school. Ultimately, by cutting SNAP to fund these programs, young
children were placed at greater risk of food insecurity.

"We saw kids stop growing, being in fair-to-poor health and their
caregivers being in fair-to-poor health," Sandel said. "So this is
really a family issue. Think about what SNAP is. It's the largest
anti-hunger program in the United States. It's an evidence-based tool
for ensuring families put food on the table."

Back to hunger

The assistance programs of the pandemic era were working
[[link removed]] —
not just to uphold communities affected by COVID-19, but as examples
of how long-standing issues like food insecurity and unstable incomes
could be addressed as a whole.

But that safety net is fading fast. Gone are the extra unemployment
payments, free school lunches for all, and the extended child tax
credit. According to the Department of Agriculture
[[link removed]],
SNAP cost $119 billion last year with the extra benefits. That would
equate to about 2% of the national budget
[[link removed].] for
the 2023 fiscal year.

Raynah in southern Oregon thinks the stigma around government
assistance is stopping a lot of people — including those in charge
— from being realistic about it.

"People are really closer to needing SNAP than they realize half the
time," she said. "No one should ever face food insecurity."

But that will be unavoidable for many Americans now, including her and
Teresa Calderez in Colorado Springs. Calderez said her rent went up
and was already squeezing her budget, even with the SNAP benefits.
Now, she has to give up the healthy diet she'd gotten used to.

"You know, buying a gallon of milk — a lot of people don't really
give it another thought," she said. "But there are lots of us out here
who can't buy a gallon of milk when we need it. I'm just going to have
to go back to not eating very much, about a meal a day."

"Unfortunately, I have known hunger. And it's not a good feeling."

_Lauren Hodges is an associate producer for All Things Considered.
She joined the show in 2018 after seven years in the NPR newsroom as a
producer and editor. _

* SNAP
[[link removed]]
* hunger in the United States
[[link removed]]
* benefit cuts
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]