Planned cuts to federal food benefits that will affect 16 million households could be even harder on older Americans.
Thanks to the expiration of the stimulus created by Congress at the beginning of the pandemic, many older Americans will see their monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits drop from $295 to $23, the federal minimum.
Judith Borenin of Port Townsend, Washington, said the extra SNAP benefits she’s received over the past three years have helped her buy fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. He bought oranges, grapes and strawberries, even though he considered the strawberries a splurge.
Borenin, 70, got word this week from the state Department of Health and Social Services that the extra money would be gone. Next month, he will only receive $60.
“I’m thinking of saving canned soup, I guess, and crackers,” he said.
Congress decided in December that “emergency rations” created in March 2020, intended to help SNAP recipients survive the pandemic, will end in March 2023. The average reduction is about $82 per person, according to the Center for Food Research and Action. , to reduce collective spending by nearly $3 billion per month.
Among SNAP recipients, older Americans will see the biggest decline in benefits per person, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The impact could be significant: One study estimates that increased benefits could reduce elderly poverty by nearly 8.6% by the second half of 2021.
“Like when you throw a party for the homeless at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it’s like, they don’t have to eat the rest of the year? Really?”
– Judith Borenin
Lawmakers say it’s unfortunate that SNAP benefits are going to drop so quickly, but they’ve never called for the boost to last forever. And they’re moving extra funds toward a permanent summer nutrition program for kids who qualify for free or reduced school meals.
The benefit cuts are among the changes to SNAP and other social safety net programs as the federal government ends its pandemic emergency declaration later this year. Millions of low-income Americans will lose Medicaid health coverage this spring.
The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, shows the program serves more than 4 million older Americans who live alone. Because of their income from Social Security, their benefits tend to be lower than what most SNAP households receive. (Most older Americans are eligible for food benefits don’t really accept peoplebecause they don’t know they’re eligible or because they don’t consider the minimum benefits worth bothering to fill out an application.)
Borenin earns about $1,000 in Social Security retirement benefits each month, so he is not eligible for more than $60 in food benefits. He worked in various retail jobs for decades but had to retire a few years ago due to bad knees.
He questioned the government’s logic that extra food money was useful during the pandemic, but not anymore. “Like when you throw a party for the homeless at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it’s like, they don’t have to eat the rest of the year? Really?” she said.
Borenin said he worked in a bookstore. He was a published poet, but his writing did not bring him any income; it is true cost money to submit works for literary journals, limiting him to two submissions or less per month. After rent and bills, they still have $250 a month, more to spend on food if SNAP benefits shrink to pre-pandemic levels.
He published it poem in 2020 titled “Dinner Party” which opens with a vision of a less-than-satisfying meal: “Set before me is a meal of ice / and dust – no smell but content. / Leaving a little trace of iron – a / taste of rancid rust – yet / seems to be enough.”