On March 31, attorneys representing Pennsylvania Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants secured an important victory when the Biden administration abandoned the Trump administration’s opposition to Families First SNAP Emergency Assistance going to the lowest income households already at the maximum benefit levels.
In fiscal year 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (USDA FNS) reported that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) retailer redemptions approximated $56 billion. In their recently released fiscal year 2020 data, that number dramatically increased to $78 billion. FNS attributes this 40 percent increase in redemptions to the emergency benefits provided in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has been one year since the COVID-19 pandemic caused extraordinary disruptions to life in the United States. The public health and economic fallout from the pandemic has been widespread, and also has exposed long-standing disparities and inequities in access to health care, education, employment, housing, and food. As the crisis unfolded, it did not take long for the nation to become painfully aware of the material hardships facing millions of Americans. In order to address the various challenges facing the nation, the federal government took a number of actions to provide relief for struggling families. One key action was leveraging and expanding federal nutrition resources, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
If there is one thing that we have learned because of the pandemic, it’s that we could have been better prepared. That’s true at every level: local, state, federal, and international. But there is something that we can do about it, at least at the state level — we can work to ensure that our food system has the coordination to address the challenges that are likely to emerge, and that includes pandemics.
The American Rescue Plan makes significant advancements to help families struggling with hunger, including expanding the Child Tax Credit. Join this sign-on letter, led by the Children’s Defense Fund and the Center for the Study of Social Policy, to urge the administration to make the Child Tax Credit investments permanent and ensure this benefit would reach all children who need it. State and national organizations can sign on by March 26 to show support for alleviating child poverty and reducing racial inequities.
