Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is Essential to Solving Food Insecurity

Jean McMurray

On March 24th, shortly after Governor Baker ordered all public and private schools closed, issued his stay at home advisory, and closed all non-essential businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, calls and visits to Worcester County Food Bank (WCFB) increased dramatically from people looking for food assistance. One person who called was Marie, the panic evident in her voice when she told me, “I have three children and was laid off due to the Governor’s order. I never needed help with feeding my family before and I’m not sure where to go or who to turn to. I’m scrambling to cover my bills while I wait for unemployment to be approved.” I gave Marie information on applying for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and where take-out school meals were available for her kids. Because her local food pantry wasn’t open until the next day, Marie came to WCFB to pick up food. As co-workers and I brought boxes with a variety of fresh, frozen, and nonperishable food items out to her car, Marie met us with a smile and told us her tears were tears of relief.

The speed at which the pandemic triggered a public health crisis and unemployment crisis was unprecedented as is the impact on our community. The pandemic has disproportionately affected our neighbors and communities of color and exacerbated a food insecurity problem that already affected far too many of our neighbors – yours and mine – living next door, around the corner, and across town. WCFB and its network of food pantries mostly run by volunteers went from helping an average of 30,320 people every month to an average of 36,630 people. Prior to the pandemic, 1 in 12 people and 1 in 10 children in Worcester County were food insecure. Those numbers are now 1 in 8 people and 1 in 6 children.

In addition to children, these neighbors are seniors, college students, parents and grandparents, working adults, people who are unemployed or underemployed, people with disabilities, veterans, and people of all races, backgrounds, and life experiences from all 60 cities and towns in Worcester County. Some have been struggling for a long while. For others, circumstances changed just recently (sometimes unexpectedly) resulting in a first visit to a food pantry.

In April, WCFB and our food pantries assisted 10,300 people asking for help for the first time; an extraordinary number and a 205 percent increase compared to April 2019. This was not surprising given it was the first full month of the pandemic and people turned to food pantries as their first source of help while waiting to receive their SNAP benefits and unemployment assistance.

In May and June, the number of people going to food pantries decreased. Those were the same months people received additional SNAP benefits, Pandemic EBT benefits for children, and $600 a week in federal pandemic unemployment compensation. These additional resources supported them in meeting their needs.

At the end of our fiscal year on June 30, 2020, WCFB distributed enough food for 6 million meals, an 18 percent increase from last year. WCFB’s loyal supporters provide the food and financial resources that enable us to respond to people needing help. Food donations are steady from the state funded MA Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP) and from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Thanks to the incredible outpouring of kindness from our community of donors: individuals, businesses, organizations, and foundations,

WCFB is purchasing food for the first time to supplement our donated food resources to ensure we remain a consistent and reliable supplier of food to our network of food pantries during this challenging time of so much uncertainty.

Although food banks such as WCFB provide an essential service, the reality is that we could not solve the hunger problem before the pandemic, and we cannot solve the crisis now. This is a crucial reminder that our advocacy at local, state, and federal levels is more important than ever for policies and programs that decrease hunger by improving people’s access to healthy food. Programs such as SNAP. SNAP effectively and sustainably scales up to meet the needs of the number of people who are food insecure. According to Feeding America, the national network of food banks, for every one meal provided by food from a food bank, SNAP provides nine.

SNAP is targeted to help our most vulnerable neighbors, predominantly serving households that include children, seniors, people with disabilities, and adults earning low wages. SNAP benefits phase out as people get back on their feet, with the average person staying on the program for about one year. SNAP is also a highly efficient program with one of the lowest fraud rates of any benefit program.

As our nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, SNAP provides the purchasing power people need to buy their own food and it stimulates the economy. Each $1 spent in SNAP benefits during an economic downturn generates $1.80 in economic activity as families pay for food at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. The impact is felt throughout the food chain, from farmers and food producers to truckers, food retailers, and store employees.

The current average SNAP benefit of $1.40 per person per meal per day is inadequate to meet people’s nutritional needs. The monthly benefit needs to be increased to reflect the actual cost of feeding a family with healthy food. In May, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act,

a COVID-19 relief package, that languished for months in the U.S. Senate. If passed, it would boost maximum benefit levels by 15 percent, increase the minimum monthly benefit from $16 to $30, and suspend SNAP time limits and rule changes that would cut SNAP benefits. It would also extend Pandemic-EBT benefits through the 2020-2021 school year, a critical new program that expands access to meals for school children. As we move through this pandemic together, WCFB’s efforts will continue and we ask everyone to call on Congress to do its part to solve food insecurity. +

Jean G. McMurray is Chief Executive Officer of Worcester County Food Bank, Shrewsbury, MA. She may be reached at jean@foodbank.org. Learn more at foodbank.org.