SNAP doesn't cover costs of putting food on the table in 98% of counties: Report

(TND) — Federal food assistance falls far short of basic meal costs for the roughly 40 million Americans receiving the benefit, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits didn’t cover the cost of a modestly priced meal in at least 98% of counties last year, according to the report published this week.

The average modestly priced meal cost $3.37 at the end of last year, 19% more than the average maximum SNAP benefit of $2.84, the researchers found.

SNAP benefits fell short of covering monthly food costs by nearly $50 for families with zero net income.

Chris Bernard, the executive director of Hunger Free Oklahoma, said the Urban Institute report confirms what they’re seeing and hearing on the ground level.

“A study that proves what we can show anecdotally ... is super helpful,” he said Wednesday.

Max benefits can vary by where you live, and the gaps between SNAP benefits and meal costs also vary.

SNAP served an average of 42 million people per month last year, after back-to-back years of around 41 million food stamp recipients.

The number of recipients jumped from about 35 million in 2019 to about 39 million in 2020. The program had over 40 million participants each year from 2010 to 2018, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

Last year’s average monthly benefit was around $211, and the program paid out over $107 billion in total benefits.

The previous high in total benefits was $76 billion in 2013.

SNAP is a huge part of the federal farm bill, which is renewed every five years.

The farm bill was last passed in 2018 and extended last year through the end of this September.

Lawmakers are now negotiating a new farm bill, and Bernard is concerned that the House version could result in SNAP recipients falling even further behind.

At the heart of his concern is the fate of the Thrifty Food Plan, which was reevaluated a few years ago and resulted in a 21% increase in SNAP benefits.

That’s separate from annual cost-of-living adjustments for SNAP benefits.

But the House proposal for the new farm bill wants to keep the USDA from “arbitrarily increasing” benefits and calls for Thrifty Food Plan updates to be “cost neutral.”

Bernard said it’s important to keep the Thrifty Food Plan as a mechanism for increasing benefits.

Without the 21% increase in 2021, he said the struggles illustrated by the new Urban Institute report would be even more extreme.

“If you didn't have that Thrifty Food Plan (increase) in the middle of all this inflation, imagine how bad the benefits would be comparatively,” he said.

The increase in food costs has slowed, but they’re up 23% over the last four years, according to the consumer price index.

Food prices are up 10% in just the last two years.

A person earning 130% of the federal poverty level qualifies for SNAP benefits. That’s only about $18,900 a year for an individual or $39,000 for a family of four.

And a lot of folks have lost pandemic-era supplements to their food benefits.

Bernard said they’re seeing folks running out of SNAP benefits earlier in the month, and that’s putting more pressure on food banks to pick up the slack.

And people are having a harder time covering the gaps in food costs with rent and other expenses also higher, he said.

“For an individual, SNAP benefits are the difference between skipping meals, deciding between medication and food,” Bernard said.

But SNAP also benefits society, he said.

The benefits help people access jobs and education, cut down on medical costs from nutrition-related diseases, and they support our “food system.”

“So, you're supporting grocery stores, you're supporting truck drivers, you're supporting farmers,” he said. “Our food system needs SNAP benefits to run the way it currently runs.”

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