By Mickey Friedman
January 1, 2020
Not your fingers. Or the ginger cookie. Or the center getting the ball to the quarterback. But the program that helps people get enough food to survive.
SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The program President Trump wants to make more restrictive. His “rule revises the conditions under which USDA would waive, when requested by States, the able-bodied adult without dependents (ABAWD) time limit in areas that have an unemployment rate of over 10 percent or a lack of sufficient jobs. In addition, the rule limits carryover of ABAWD discretionary exemptions.”
People think it’s easy to rip off the system, but the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 “limits the amount of time an able-bodied adult without dependents (ABAWD) can receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to 3 months in a 36-month period (the time limit), unless the individual meets certain work requirements.”
The States have a limited number of discretionary exemptions that can be used to extend SNAP eligibility.
You want SNAP benefits, you have to meet income eligibility. The gross monthly income limit for a single person is $1,354. $16, 248 a year. If you qualify, the monthly food allowance is $194. For a family of four earning $2,790 a month, $33, 480 a year, you get $646 a month in food.
Our President believes the States have been too lenient with their hungry people. Because “while SNAP is intended to ensure no one in our land of plenty should fear going hungry, its rules also reflect the importance of work and responsibility.”
You’ve got to love those rule making politicians, well-fed with corporate contributions, accomplishing almost nothing at $174,000 a year except tax breaks for multi-millionaires.
Their restrictions promote “work over welfare and self-reliance over dependency.” Transcending the hunger pangs while “encouraging personal responsibility, and restoring a sense of hope in the future.” But many states recognized they were better able than Washington to determine if there were sufficient jobs available, or whether family circumstances called for a waiver of those stringent requirements.
Meanwhile, the new rules change the way utility costs are deducted from income, penalizing those who live in the northeast. Of course, never hungry Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue knows better: “In today’s economy, the longest economic expansion in the history of the United States that the president has sustained, now is the time to help these people engage back to work.”
So, according to CityLab, “The new final rule rolls back the leeway of states to issue waivers, which allow food-aid recipients in areas with high unemployment to continue to receive aid beyond statutory time limits set for the program.”
Who will be impacted? “Thirty-six states — led by Democratic and Republican governors alike — currently have waivers in place for SNAP time limits in place for areas where unemployment is high … In Kentucky, 62 percent of the state’s low-income population lives in waived areas (as of 2018) … Overall, the effects of the new regulation will fall hardest on people of color, people without higher education, and people living in rural areas. A formula based on historic data for overall unemployment will not register deeper unemployment among African Americans, for example, or the challenge that rural residents face in finding new jobs.”
In 2017, 764,000, or one in nine Massachusetts residents participated. And more than 56% of SNAP participants are family members with kids, almost 49% are elderly or have a disability, while more than 32% are members of working families. In Massachusetts, 10.2% of our households are “food insecure.” 10.5 % of the population live below the poverty line. 13.5 % of our children and 9% of our elderly. The average SNAP benefit for Massachusetts recipients is $211 a month.
20% of Berkshire households need help from SNAP. Our SNAP recipients have a median yearly income of $18,329. While the median income of our households who don’t receive SNAP benefits is $67,221. Boston.com calculated that SNAP provides $1.38 per meal, less than a cup of coffee in Boston.
Rep. Jim McGovern said: “Though a benefit cut of $50 per household might not sound like a whole lot, it could literally mean the difference between food on the table and going to bed hungry for hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts families.”
With SNAP cuts, there’s a way for you to help. Berkshire Bounty confronts hunger every day. In 2019, more than $120,000 pounds of food has been donated by Big Y, Price Chopper, Guido’s, Barrington Bagel, the Co-op, and local farmers, then distributed to food pantries, WIC, and senior centers, Still, the need grows. We’re now purchasing additional food at cost. Please contribute. Go to www.berkshire-bounty.org and click on the “Donate” button. Or send a check payable to Berkshire Bounty to 33 Commonwealth Avenue, Great Barrington, MA 01230.
An all-volunteer organization, every dollar goes to collecting and distributing food. SNAP Back. Fight hunger here at home.
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SNAP was first published on December 23, 2019 in the Berkshire Record.