PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians who received emergency food assistance benefits during the pandemic will soon see a drastic change in the amount of money they receive. The state says local food charities will be called even more to help people who would otherwise go hungry.
Throughout the pandemic, people across the country who took part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program received SNAP emergency allotments. However, following the passage of recent legislation, SNAP emergency benefits are officially over.
“I wish I could tell you today that we have solved this problem,” she said. “This problem is definitely with us for the foreseeable future,” said Val Arkoosh, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of the Department of Human Services.
In 2020, Pennsylvanians in SNAP households started getting about $95 extra per person per month, she said. That extra payment each month provided $2 billion to Pennsylvanians in 2022.
“This allotment was absolutely critical to helping people get through the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Arkoosh said March is the first month since then that people will not receive that second monthly payment. “It will result in SNAP recipients seeing an abrupt cliff, not a scale down from the benefits they have been receiving.”
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She adds some of Pennsylvania's most vulnerable residents will see these effects first.
“Sixty percent of our SNAP households are households with children,” she said. “Nearly half include older Pennsylvanians or an adult with a physical or intellectual disability.”
The state is encouraging people in need to reach out to their local food banks so they will not go hungry. Those food banks get their resources from organizations like food assistance nonprofit Philabundance.
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“The ending of the SNAP emergency allotment is expected to create an extremely high demand on the charitable food system at a time when we have less government funding and support coming through since the pandemic,” said Philabundance CEO Lori Jones Brown.
On average, homes across the country will lose $80 in SNAP benefits per person per month — but that number is higher in Pennsylvania, Brown said.
“At a minimum, households may lose $95, but many others may lose over $400.”