![]() ![]() ![]() “The COVID pandemic is giving way to a hunger pandemic,” Hall said. ![]() Food is among items rising the fastest, leaving many families unable to buy enough groceries. Wages have been increasing in the United States and the national unemployment rate in March dropped to 3.6 percent, but those gains have been offset by an 8.5 percent increase in inflation compared to a year ago. Vince Hall, who oversees public policy for the nationwide food bank network Feeding America, said ending the extra benefits ignores the reality that even as the pandemic wanes there hasn’t been a decline in demand at food banks. “All the memories from before the emergency allotment came rushing back.”Īlex Murphy, a spokesman for Reynolds, noted the extra benefits were always intended to help people who lost jobs because of the pandemic and said, “we have to return to pre-pandemic life.” Murphy pointed out that Iowa has over 86,000 job openings listed on a state unemployment website.īut Kramer said she’s not able to work and that even getting out of her apartment can be a struggle at times. Kramer, who has a genetic disorder that can cause intense pain, said the extra money enabled her to buy healthier food that made her feel better and help her to live a more active life. Kim Reynolds to end the emergency payments starting April 1 meant her monthly SNAP benefit plunged from $250 in March to $20 in April. The entire program would come to a halt if the federal government decides to end its public health emergency, though the Biden administration so far hasn’t signaled an intention to do so.įor Tara Kramer, 45, of Des Moines, the decision by Iowa Gov. Recipients receive at least $95 per month under the program, but some individuals and families typically eligible for only small benefits can get hundreds of dollars in extra payments each month. Now that the virus has eased, they maintain, there is no longer a need to offer the higher payments at a time when businesses in most states are struggling to find enough workers.īut the extra benefits also help out families in need at a time of skyrocketing prices for food. Republican leaders argue that the extra benefits were intended to only temporarily help people forced out of work by the pandemic. Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Tennessee have also scaled back the benefits. ![]() Benefits also will be cut in Wyoming and Kentucky in the next month. Since then, nearly a dozen states with Republican leadership have taken similar action, with Iowa this month being the most recent place to slash the benefits. Pete Rickett said was necessary to “show the rest of the country how to get back to normal.” Nebraska took the most aggressive action anywhere in the country, ending the emergency benefits four months into the pandemic in July 2020 in a move Republican Gov. READ MORE: Rising grocery prices put pressure on millions of Americans already facing food insecurity The result is that depending on the politics of a state, individuals and families in need find themselves eligible for significantly different levels of help buying food. Department of Agriculture began offering the increased benefit in April 2020 in response to surging unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the country. The payments to low-income individuals and families are dropping as governors end COVID-19 disaster declarations and opt out of an ongoing federal program that made their states eligible for dramatic increases in SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Month by month, more of the roughly 40 million Americans who get help buying groceries through the federal food stamp program are seeing their benefits plunge even as the nation struggles with the biggest increase in food costs in decades. ![]()
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