![]() ![]() When her SNAP benefits shrink back to their pre-pandemic levels next month, Brown will cut back on fresh fruits and vegetables as well. “It used to be $5.99, now some of them are $8, $9, and $11.99,” said Brown. “You know, extra meat or poultry.”īecause of rising food prices, Brown has had to cut back on certain items, including Dole’s fruit cups and Welch’s fruit juices, which her grandchildren love. “Instead of you just buying the two, now you can buy maybe three, so you can put them aside,” said Brown. With the extra $95 a month, the former social worker can afford to buy groceries in bulk at BJ’s or Costco, which she said cost less per unit than what she’d pay at the local supermarket. For a family of four, the average monthly benefits are $979, a nearly 27% increase.Įthel Brown, 62, of the Bronx, knows the prices of all the grocery items she regularly buys because she has to stretch her $281-a-month food stamp benefits to feed herself, her daughter and two young grandchildren who live with her. On average, the monthly food stamp benefits for a one-person household are $362, a nearly 40% increase from pre-pandemic levels, according to the city’s social services agency. That’s up from about 875,000 households in December 2019. In New York City, more residents received SNAP benefits in 2022 than before the pandemic, according to the city’s Department of Social Services.Īs of December, over a million households in the five boroughs, consisting of 1.73 million people, received SNAP benefits. In addition, other pandemic-era financial support programs have ended - including the child tax credit expansion and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which helps eligible low- and moderate-income tenants pay rent arrears accumulated during the COVID-19 crisis. The end of the food stamp supplement comes at a time when food prices are already about 10% higher due to inflation. “What we're expecting is more people are going to come to the emergency food network,” said Nicholas Buess, director of government relations for Food Bank for New York City, a major hunger relief organization. However, Congress passed a spending bill in December that stopped the extra SNAP payments after February.Īnti-hunger activists warned that the reduction in the emergency food stamps will likely lead to a rise in food insecurity. ![]() The emergency allotments end when the state or the federal government ends the COVID-19 public health emergency, which the Biden administration said would happen in May. Department of Agriculture increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, for all households by at least $95 to help very-low-income families. “I’ve been able to treat myself to – like seafood – foods that are rich in iron,” said White, who said she suffers from iron deficiency anemia, which has caused her to pass out unexpectedly. The $95-a-month boost, a nearly 50% increase to White’s food budget, allowed her to buy items she typically can’t afford. ![]() She'll give me maybe two or three items that she has that’s too much for her household, but it'll be enough to share between households.”īefore the pandemic, White said she received about $195 a month in food stamp benefits, but it wouldn’t last an entire month. “Usually, I would hit my stepmother up for some extra groceries,” said White, 45, of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, who is unable to work due to health issues. The additional money going to White and more than 2.8 million low-income New Yorkers will disappear in March, leaving some households scrambling to stock up on bulk items and figure out how they’re going to cope when their food benefits are drastically cut. For nearly two years, Charisma White’s grocery list has grown to include kale, spinach, collard greens and seafood thanks to an extra $95 a month in food stamp benefits she received after the federal government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency. ![]()
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