USDA To Boost Food Stamp Benefits By 25 Percent

ASHRAF KHALIL and JOSH BOAK - food stamps benefit Increase

USDA To Boost Food Stamp Benefits By 25 Percent

The Biden administration approved a significant and permanent increase in the levels of food stamp assistance.

Food stamp assistance is imperative to needy families.

This change is now the largest single increase in the program’s history.

SNAP Program & Food Stamps

Starting in October, average benefits for food stamps (officially known as the SNAP program) will rise more than 25 percent.

This percentage will rise above pre-pandemic levels.

The increased assistance will be available indefinitely to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries.

The aid boost was first reported by The New York Times and the details were confirmed by a spokeswoman for the

Department of Agriculture.

They will be formally announced Monday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The aid boost is being packaged as a major revision of the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan.

In concrete terms, the average monthly per-person benefits will rise from $121 to $157.

Social Safety Net

The increase is part of a multi-pronged Biden administration effort to strengthen the country’s social safety net.

Poverty and food security activists maintain that longstanding inadequacies in that safety net were laid bare by the COVID-19

pandemic.

Moreover, this presents  an opportunity to make generational improvements that reach beyond the current public health crisis.

Activists say the previous levels of pre-pandemic SNAP assistance simply weren’t enough.

Because of this, many households are forced to choose cheaper, less nutritious options or simply go hungry as the funds run

low toward the end of the month.

According to the White House’s fact sheet, Biden’s order is for the USDA to “consider issuing new guidance that would allow

states to increase SNAP emergency allotments for those who need it most. This would be the first step to ensuring that an

additional 12 million people get enhanced SNAP benefits to keep nutritious food on the table.”

 

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