A Small Piece of the Stupidity, Mixed with Good News

My attention was caught by a story in today's Star Tribune with this headline: Minn. food stamp recipients to see boost from stimulus bill. Always looking for some kind of good news, I focused on the lead, which told me that up to half a million people would get a 15% increase in their SNAP benefits through June.

But then I saw that the increase wouldn't start until February because the January benefits had already been allocated by the time the bill was passed.

And that was followed by a quote from a 74-year-old disabled veteran named Richard Lewis, who lives on Social Security and disability payments. He had seen his food stamp amount over the past three years go from $120 to $15 with no notice. Six months into COVID, the amount went back up to about $180, but he didn't trust that increase and didn't use it. "I didn't want to end up spending any of it and having to pay them back because I've had that happen before," he told the Star Tribune. 

It was verified, I'm glad to say, and he has since been making use of it. This new money from the stimulus bill would be on top of his current increased level. But how messed up is it that he had to fear that? He's not wrong, though. He knows the system.

Some other facts from the story about hunger in Minnesota:

• Food shelf visits in 2020 are up 67% from 2008, and you may remember that 2008 was not exactly an economically flush year. (2020 saw 3.75 million visits vs. 2.25 million in 2008, according to the statewide advocacy organization Hunger Solutions).
• Loaves and Fishes, the largest meal program in the state, is ending the year at 4.4 million meals, compared to 1.3 million in 2019, a 238% increase.
• A food shelf in the eastern suburb of Oakdale, which served 6,000 people in November 2019, served 21,000 in November 2020.
  

The increase in SNAP benefits will, everyone hopes, help alleviate the increased demand at food shelves, which are in a tightly interconnected web of need and support that's always teetering on the edge of failure.

___

Some past posts about SNAP:

SNAP facts (April 2017)

Making the case for government programs (March 2014)

These problems are about policy (April 2014)

Undermining the safety net (May 2012)

Is your grandma a welfare queen? (April 2010)

Poor but happy (if a little violent) (December 2009)