SNAP benefits will be reduced to pre-pandemic levels March 1
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[February 13, 2023]
By Zeta Cross | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – Food pantries are bracing to feed more hungry
people in Illinois.
In March, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program card holders in
Illinois will see reductions of $55 to $250 per person, said Man-Yee
Lee, spokesperson for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository is a food bank that supplies food to
more than 700 local food pantries. Two million people in one million
Illinois households currently receive SNAP benefits.
In April 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic emergency was declared, the
federal government added bonus dollars to SNAP cards, the
taxpayer-funded cash cards that people of certain income levels use to
buy groceries. In March, the federal government will return the
subsidies to pre-pandemic amounts.
“Many people may not be following what Congress is doing and they may
not know that these changes are happening,” Lee told The Center Square.
“At a time when food prices remain high, we are really worried that this
reduction in benefits will take people by surprise.”
One in five households in the region struggles to put food on the table,
Lee said.
“The hunger crisis preceded the pandemic,” Lee said. “Inflation has only
made it worse.”
The exact size of the benefit decrease that each household will
experience in March will vary greatly, depending on income and household
size, Lee said. People with little to no net income will see the
smallest reduction. The average one-person recipient will see a
reduction of $86 a month, Lee said.
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The Greater Chicago Food Depository encourages people to check their
accounts at the Application for Benefits Eligible website. Follow the
links at chicagosfoodbank.org/snapea for more information.
If circumstances in the household have changed, the household may
qualify for increased benefits. Among the circumstances that could allow
for more benefits are if more people are now living in the home, if the
household income has gone down, housing, medical or child care expenses
have gone up, or if a person in the household is paying child care
expenses for a child who lives elsewhere.
This winter, inflation has sent more people to food pantries and meal
programs, Lee said. For months now, the food depository has been buying
more food to keep up with increased demand.
Generous donors in the private sector do supply some food, but much of
the food is bought directly by the food depository, Lee said.
“People do not realize that the food depository continues to purchase
much of the food that it distributes,” she said.
In recent months, the depository has doubled what it spends on the food
that it supplies to its food bank partners, Lee said.
“This is something that we have been addressing for quite a while now
and we are very concerned,” she said. “A recent consumer price index
showed that prices are stabilizing – except food prices.”
The depository has managed to keep local food pantry shelves stocked,
but it has been tough, Lee said. Come March, when SNAP payments are
reduced, she expects even more people to turn to food pantries to put
food on the table.
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