If Congress Does Not Approve the Snap Legislation It Will Be a Pandemic of Hunger for KIDS, But Elderly Will get Hit Too
Merry Chrismas Hungry Little Girl, You still look good.
As hunger surges during the COVID-19 pandemic, millions more in the U.S. have turned to the Department of Agriculture's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for relief -- formerly known as food stamps.
And according to food security advocates, if Congress does not reach a deal on a second COVID-19 stimulus bill, conditions for low-income families may become more dire -- particularly for households with children and families of color, who have been disproportionately impacted by hunger, per the latest U.S. Census data.
"Congress has been fighting about an extra stimulus package since the summer and meanwhile, children are going hungry, families are worried about losing their homes," Lisa Davis, senior vice president of the No Kid Hungry Campaign, told ABC News. "If kids continue to go hungry, at this rate, it's because Congress chose this path."
Since the public health crisis hit the U.S. in March, food insecurity has increased in each state, doubling overall and tripling among households with children, according to a June study of USDA data by the Northwestern Institute for Policy Research.
Congress has already taken some steps to address food insecurity, including increasing funding for food banks and giving states flexibility to give families access to the maximum amount of SNAP benefits.
Chances for COVID-19 relief compromise grow dimmer
Lawmakers also passed legislation that brought states the option to utilize the Pandemic-EBT program, which provides low-income families with funds to replace free or reduced-price school meals. The program has been extended through the 2020-2021 school year.
But advocates noted that even with these provisions in place, hunger continues to soar. And with key pandemic relief measures like unemployment insurance and a federal eviction moratorium set to expire by the end of the year, they are calling on Congress to do much more.
Millions of children across the United States are already going hungry amid the economic recession spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, and emergency food assistance is set to expire on September 30 as Congress remains at an impasse over stimulus legislation. The House has already passed legislation that would renew the emergency food assistance, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to take it up in the Senate.
During the last week of August, up to 14 percent of parents reported that they could not consistently afford to feed their children as millions of people remain without work due to efforts to contain the coronavirus, according to federal data crunched by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). About 1 in 10 adults reported that their households did not have enough to eat at some point in the last seven days, including 19 percent of Black adults and 17 percent of Latinx adults. These figures add to reams of data showing that the pandemic and recession have disproportionally harmed people of color, who are more likely to work in low-paying industries that have suffered job losses.
Compare these numbers to figures from 2019, when only 3.7 percent of adults reported that their households had “not enough to eat”
during the course of the year and about 1 percent of parents reported their children going hungry, according to CBPP’s analysis. Hunger persists across the country despite pandemic relief packages passed by Congress earlier this year, and millions of people are still struggling to pay rent, bills, mortgages, and for other basic needs. Despite federal aid packages passed earlier this year, in July one in four children lived in households that either could not afford enough food or could not afford to pay their rent or mortgage, or both. Since February 2020, there has been about a 15% increase nationally of participation in the SNAP program -- from about 37 million to 43 million by May, according to a study of USDA data by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
"That level of increase nationally is unprecedented. The only other time we saw growth like that was during the Great Recession in 2008, 2009 ... but it took many more months for it to spike that quickly," said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at CBPP.
Food banks face growing hunger crisis ahead of the holidays during the pandemic
Carmen Del Guercio, president and CEO of the Maryland Food Bank, said that food banks have been strained as they cope with a declining number of volunteers amid the pandemic and a spike in need.
"We estimate that there's 2.5 million Marylanders in our state who are food insecure. About a million and a half of those were struggling to make ends meet before the pandemic," Del Guercio said, adding that Black and Hispanic communities are facing "a bigger challenge" because they experienced "a higher rate of food insecurity" before COVID-19.
Amid the latest stalemate on Capitol Hill, there are two competing bills on the table.
A GOP-backed $916 billion proposal from the White House was already rejected by Democrats, partly because it cuts funding for unemployment insurance, and a $908 billion proposal by a bipartisan group of senators, which was endorsed by Democratic leaders as a start.
In the bipartisan bill, senators proposed some measures addressing food insecurity, including increased funding for food banks and organizations like Meals on Wheels, an expansion of benefits though the P-EBT program and an increase of SNAP benefits by 15% for four months, which would amount to about an extra $25 per person each month.
"About 40% of families, including the very poorest families on SNAP, were already at the maximum so [the initial] emergency allotment has not helped them," Davis said. "People don't realize how inadequate [SNAP] benefits are, in general. They only average about $1.40 per person, per meal."
It is unclear if lawmakers will reach a deal on COVID-19 relief ahead of the tight holiday deadline and whether it would boost food security measures.
Del Guercio said that even with the initial pandemic relief "supports in place," there was an "increased demand" that will "continue to stay high," even if Congress does pass a new relief bill.
Bipartisan group of lawmakers unveil $908 billion COVID-19 relief proposal
"But we'll take all the help we can get," Del Guercio added.
Regarding the ongoing debate among lawmakers over the cost of the stimulus package, Davis said that the "cost of doing nothing" is "so much more."
"The same children that are experiencing food insecurity, in most cases, are the same kids that face challenges and inequities in accessing online learning. And if we don't take action, we're risking losing a generation of low-income children," Davis said. “Because the consequences of not getting the food they need over these months, and educational support they need will be difficult, if not impossible to overcome.”
Amid 'unprecedented' hunger, advocates urge Congress to boost SNAP benefits in COVID-19 relief originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
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