'Flawed' SNAP program still essential for many Americans

(TNND) — Federal food assistance for low-income Americans is on the verge of getting turned off as the government shutdown nears its second month.

“I don't think I've been more concerned about anything in my career before,” said Chris Bernard, the president and CEO of Hunger Free Oklahoma, which works with both food stamp beneficiaries and community partners.

Bernard is bracing for the “unprecedented” suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits this weekend, Nov. 1. Funding is currently set to lapse because of the government shutdown.

Bernard said around 685,000 Oklahomans will face new challenges putting food on the table.

Nationally, SNAP helps about 42 million Americans in 22 million households.

That’s about 12% of the population.

SNAP provides nearly $8 billion a month in food assistance to families with children (34% of SNAP households), elderly people living alone (27% of SNAP households) and more.

While the costs of the program have ballooned over the last 20 years, it fills essential needs for a lot of Americans.

And Bernard doesn’t think anyone outside the government is equipped to pick up the slack.

“Charities will be overwhelmed in minutes. They already are,” he said.

GROWING PROGRAM

SNAP is fully funded by the federal government but administered by states.

Angela Rachidi, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank, said SNAP has transformed from a $20 billion a year safety net program two decades ago to upwards of $100 billion a year now.

She said SNAP benefits vary depending on household size and income, but most SNAP households with children will lose $300 or more a month as benefits are suspended under the shutdown.

Rachidi said greater participation and higher benefits have fueled the cost increases in the program.

She said in the early 2000s, about 6% of the population was receiving SNAP. That peaked around the Great Recession to 15%, and now it's back down to about 12%.

The program has grown from both increased eligibility but also by higher rates of participation among eligible households, she said.

And Rachidi said the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2021 under former President Joe Biden administratively increased benefit levels, boosting payments by around 25% above typical cost-of-living increases.

Rachidi said SNAP is both flawed and essential.

She’s pointed out “pressing policy challenges,” including the program growth, expanded eligibility, what she called questionable benefit increases, and “loopholes” that she said allow undocumented immigrant households to receive benefits.

“The growth of the program, I think, is a major concern, as well as some of these kind of mechanisms within the program that disincentivize work and make it harder for households to become self-reliant,” Rachidi said.

But she said SNAP is essential, especially for fixed-income households.

And the abrupt suspension of the benefits could hit especially hard.

“If people have the opportunity to prepare for a benefit loss, I think it's very different,” Rachidi said. “Because they can try to find other income sources through employment, for example, through other things. But I think because it's such an abrupt loss that, yes, I think it'll be very consequential for households.”

'IMPOSSIBLE DECISIONS'

Both Rachidi and Bernard said nonprofit food banks will feel more strain if and when SNAP benefits are cut off, but they also said households will be forced into making some difficult decisions.

Bernard is calling on states, including his state of Oklahoma, to cover some of the gaps in funding.

He also wants to see the USDA release billions in contingency funds to cover at least partial SNAP costs in November.

And, ultimately, he hopes the shutdown ends soon.

Ensuring Americans have food on their table should be a bipartisan priority, he said.

In Oklahoma, SNAP benefits are released on the first, fifth and 10th of the month. It won’t take long until people are feeling the impact.

Both SNAP beneficiaries and community partners are afraid of what’s to come, Bernard said.

“I was talking to a partner today who said normally they have about 16 voicemails a day that they come into the office to – they’re a food pantry, right? – it is averaging over 300 already,” he said.

And Bernard said he’s heard from families just over the income threshold to qualify for SNAP who rely on food banks but have been turned away, as the food banks prepare for the crush of requests from SNAP recipients.

That’s one expected spillover effect.

Another is on household finances.

Families might have to choose between food, medicine, rent or other essentials.

And those choices could ripple to local businesses, such as grocery stores.

“It's all impossible decisions,” Bernard said. “Forgo one need for the other. Get yourself in more debt by not paying your rent, at risk of eviction or at risk of having your lights turned off.”