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In March, American households in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will begin losing a collective total of $3 billion in SNAP benefits per month.

After three years, the Emergency Allotment of SNAP benefits — part of a federal program that provides food-purchasing assistance for people with low incomes — that was instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic ended on March 1.

The Emergency Allotment temporarily increased each household’s benefits by an average of $90 per month, beginning in March 2020. In February, Gov. Kathy Hochul extended the food assistance through the end of the month, adding a total of $234 million in SNAP funds.

Amid a year of increasing food prices across the nation, the end to this boost in benefits will negatively impact many households, especially affecting metropolitan areas with high percentages of people living below the poverty line.

In January 2023, the average cost of food items increased by 10.1% in the U.S. compared to January 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rise in the cost of food at home, or food that SNAP benefits can buy, was even higher at 11.3%.

Food is just one of the many commodities that has risen in cost over the past year. Low-income households who benefit from SNAP are also facing cost increases in gasoline, electricity, medical care and rent.

But food is often the only thing that households are able to reduce in order to make ends meet, said Becky Lare, the director of government relations at the Food Bank of Central New York.

“Typically, the food budget is the first place that people look to to cut. It’s one of the easier places for them to turn to,” Lare said. “Emergency Allotments made a tremendous impact for many households throughout Central and Northern New York and across the country. By not having those dollars, it’s going to result in an increased demand on our network of food pantries and soup kitchens.”

The Food Bank of Central New York is the major food distribution hub for central and northern New York. In response to the end of Emergency Allotment funds, the food bank is proactively working to educate community members on how to maximize their SNAP benefits and manage their deductions, such as health care and childcare costs.

A decrease in SNAP dollar circulation will also harm the Syracuse economy, Lare said. In cities like Syracuse where over 30% of people receive and spend SNAP money on groceries, many people’s jobs depend on SNAP dollars being spent at their place of employment. These jobs include people stocking the shelves, working in the checkout line or trucking the food to the grocery store.

“[SNAP] is a major economic driver. Those are federal dollars that are coming directly back into the state and helping to fuel the state economy, while simultaneously helping people meet their food needs. This is, overall, going to hurt,” Lare said.

Many grocery stores in the Syracuse area accept SNAP as a form of payment. Jeremy DeChario, the General Manager of the Syracuse Cooperative Market, said their downtown location in Salt City Market receives 10% of their business from SNAP. This is due to the market’s proximity to the Rescue Mission and concentrated poverty, DeChario said.

The Syracuse Cooperative Market is also a participant of the Double Up Food Bucks program. When people use their SNAP benefits, Double Up matches their fruit and vegetable purchases dollar for dollar, up to $20 per day. People who use SNAP are incentivised to shop at stores that participate in Double Up because it makes fresh foods more affordable, DeChario said.

With the end of the Emergency Allotment, DeChario believes that people will have less discretionary money to spend on fresh produce at stores like the Cooperative Market. Instead, they will likely shop at the many dollar stores around Syracuse or big corporations like Walmart, he said.

“Walmart is a huge recipient of SNAP EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) dollars. The cruel irony is that they pay their employees not enough money, so their employees benefit from (SNAP),” DeChario said. “Taxpayers subsidize the cheap labor costs for Walmart so they can have record profits, but their employees don’t make enough money to buy food themselves.”

On Feb. 15, Wegmans announced they will allow EBT SNAP payments for online orders through both their website and app.

But parents in Syracuse will likely be the most impacted population by the end of the Emergency Allotment, said Maura Ackerman, director of the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance. Ackerman said the end in additional benefits will disproportionately impact families with children in Syracuse. The city has a 49.1% poverty rate — one of the highest child poverty rates in the country.

“​​We know that parents, by virtue of trying to protect their children, are the first to experience food insecurity,” Ackerman said. “They are more likely to skip meals or reduce their caloric intake or reduce the quality of food that they eat, so that they can preserve their children’s ability to eat.”

Families across Syracuse are already anticipating the effects of the end of the Emergency Allotment, Lare said.

“I have heard voicemails from individuals who are going to be impacted, talking about how devastating it’s going to be for their families,” Lare said. “And it’s heartbreaking. It really is.”

Published on March 9, 2023 at 2:10 am