This month, lower-income households in 32 states, including Nevada, will receive at least $95 a month less from the federal government to buy food.
The money comes from SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Last year, one in seven Nevada households receive SNAP help, with 30% of those being older adults; 62% were families with children.
See more: The State With The Most Food Insecurity During COVID-19
Now, what happened during the pandemic is that when people lost jobs, SNAP benefits were increased.
But as of March 1, that extra SNAP money disappeared. And because of that, payments to households with older adults will decline to about $76 per month; households with children will fall to about $350 a month.
The question is, with higher prices for inflation, and because SNAP recipients have worked those extra dollars into their budgets, how will this change impact families near the poverty line? Will it sink more people into poverty as the SNAP increases reportedly decreased poverty by 10% nationwide?
Joining us is Regis Whaley, the director of advocacy and research for Three Square Food Bank. He joins State of Nevada host Joe Schoenmann along with Brooke Neubauer, the CEO and founder of The Just One Project; Marcia Blake, the executive director for Helping Hands of Vegas Valley; and Nicholas Barr, an assistant professor in the UNLV department of social work.
On how Three Square plans to help
WHALEY: The state's Division of Welfare and Supportive Services is the one that oversees SNAP. And so both Three Square Food Bank, as well as our sister food bank in the north, Food Bank of Northern Nevada, we've been in talks with the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services since early January. Now, it was about, it was late December when these cuts were announced, when they got passed through the consolidated budget act for 2023 funding, and the rest of the federal budget for this year. And so we started meeting in early January to talk about what these cuts would look like. We know those cuts are coming. The state has done a lot of things to try to make sure that they mitigate that impact as much as they could. And we're basically are telling folks right now that if you are losing access to those emergency allotments, go to the food bank, that's what the food banks are here to do … is to make sure that we provide the support that's necessary in the community to make sure that everybody has access to enough food. And we've got wonderful partners, like those that are here today, that are helping to do that work.
On what The Just One Project is seeing
NEUBAUER: The top three things that our clients need assistance with our rental assistance, utility assistance and child care. And also there could be just the one smallest, yet daunting task that somebody needs to take to pass through something that they're going through. It could be as simple as needing a driver's license or a birth certificate so that they can apply for benefits or so they can get access to health care. I mean, there's just so many things and you know, when you have so much going against you and you don't even know like, where to go. It's so important that you have a supportive person that kind of can you know, hold your hand through the process.
On how seniors specifically will be hit hard
BLAKE: During the pandemic, for senior citizens, their average benefit for senior citizen was $19 a month, it went up to $241 a month. For many seniors, that was more than they spent on groceries before they received that additional funding. In fact, we had a huge flock of seniors that went and applied for SNAP because of the increase, a lot of them wouldn't even apply before. They're like, 'Why, what's the point? It's $19.' So they're gonna go from $241, down to $24. That's way more than $95. And the average income of our clients is $900 a month. If they're in subsidized housing, or they own their home, their housing costs is about $500 a month. If they have a car, then you've got to add car insurance and fuel. On top of that, if they have medications, which 90% of our clients suffer from some type of chronic disease, then there's that. So really, the very last thing our seniors are doing is buying food. Now you're taking $241 and taking it back down to $24 … you've literally taken their entire food budget away from them.
On feeding the hungry in the United States
BARR: The reason we are not able to feed people who need assistance in the United States is not because of the money we spend abroad, it's because we are misallocating or not allocating sufficient resources here. Your other guests have spoken to the fact that this program, this plus-up of SNAP benefits, was extremely effective in reducing hunger, that's a super effective program. Similarly, in over the course of the pandemic, the child tax credit drastically reduced child poverty. … Those benefits were phased out. So it's not as if you know, because we're sending money to Ukraine, we can't stop child poverty in the United States or provide sufficient food assistance, it's just that there hasn't been the political will to maintain those benefits, despite ample evidence of their effectiveness.
Guests: Regis Whaley, director of advocacy and research, Three Square Food Bank; Brooke Neubauer, CEO and founder, The Just One Project; Marcia Blake, executive director, Helping Hands of Vegas Valley; Nicholas Barr, assistant professor of social work, UNLV
