Food stamp demand rises amid the pandemic

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The pandemic has prompted more Americans to seek help to buy food and groceries. ​States across the country report food stamp applications ​are way up. And the federal government, which ​had plans to tighten eligibility for those benefits prior to the outbreak, is now putting more money into the program. 

Andrea, she prefers we not use her last name, has three jobs. She teaches fitness and yoga, she has a baking and catering business and she’s a pet sitter/walker. As a gig worker, ​she was hit hard financially when stay-at-home orders went into effect.

“Within less than 24 hours, I suddenly lost all of my income..it was kind of like getting hit in the gut where you go from having something to having nothing. You’re kind of in this place of limbo,” she said.

She’s the type of person the ​federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, also known as food stamps, is designed to help.

Anya Rose works for Hunger Free Colorado, a nonprofit that connects people to food resources like food banks and food pantries. She says her organization’s hotline has seen a big surge in calls. Local counties have also been swamped by folks seeking SNAP benefits. 

The U.S. government has responded, announcing Wednesday a 40 percent increase in SNAP benefits which amounts to $2 billion more for struggling households each month.

​That’s quite a change for the Trump Administration which prior to the pandemic announced plans to tighten work requirements for SNAP. That could have dropped 700,000 Americans from food stamp rolls.

We spoke about those plans with Andrea in December.

This crisis has reduced her work to some online fitness classes. Her kids, out of school, are ​eating​all their meals at home. And now she and her family are in quarantine because of possible exposure to the coronavirus which raises another problem: she says SNAP does not allow for food deliveries at home.

Rose worries that funding remains tight and that federal efforts to restrict SNAP access could resume once the pandemic is over. 

Food stamps, she says, are the biggest lever available to reduce hunger in America. Those benefits are absolutely necessary at a time when Andrea and many others are juggling bills and trying to stay healthy at the same time.