Federal food aid benefits to drop starting Friday

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By Jesse Wilson
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – More than 925,000 Hoosiers who rely on government assistance to purchase food will receive fewer benefits starting Friday when a program enacted during the economic downturn expires.

The cuts will mean $36 less in monthly benefits for a family of four or about $11 less for a single person who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which used to be known as food stamps.

Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, said $36 “means several days’ worth of food for a struggling family.”

“Clients already have a difficult time putting enough food on their tables and paying their bills even with SNAP benefits,” she said.

The increased benefits went into effect in 2009 when Congress passed the Recovery Act, a collection of programs meant to boost the American economy. But the increase was never meant to be permanent.

SNAP is funded by the federal government but administered by the state. Officials at the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration say they’ve been warning recipients about the upcoming drop in aid.

“We have been sending notifications by mail for about a month” said Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for FSSA. “We are always prepared to receive calls from people who need assistance and any calls that come in about the reduction in SNAP aid will be well handled.”

Overall, the federal government will send about $98 million less to Indiana for SNAP through September 2014 than if the stimulus program had been extended. About 14 percent of Hoosiers will be affected.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank in Washington D.C., about 436,000 children in Indiana will be affected by the cuts. Another 164,000 Hoosiers who are elderly or disabled will be affected.

For a family of three, the cut equals about 16 meals a month, according to the center. That’s based on costs outlined in the U.S. Agriculture Department’s “Thrifty Food Plan.”

The reduced payments will average less than $1.40 per person per meal.

“The depth and breadth of the SNAP cuts that take effect in November are unprecedented,” says a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Past cuts have affected specific states or groups, but they have not affected all participants nor been as large as these cuts.”

The cuts come as a House-Senate conference committee begins work on a farm bill that could mean even more cuts for the SNAP program. Republicans in the House have proposed cutting benefits by $40 billion over 10 years.

The current reductions will affect families as follows:

  • Family of 1: $11 a month.
  • Family of 2: $20 a month.
  • Family of 3: $29 a month.
  • Family of 4: $36 a month.
  • Family of 5: $43 a month.
  • Family of 6: $52 a month.
  • Family of 7: $57 a month.
  • Family of 8: $65 a month.
  • For each additional person: $8 a month.
  • Households that receive minimal benefit: $1 a month.

Area food banks expect to see an increase in need once the cuts take effect.

“We hope that Hoosiers statewide will also come to the aid of our friends, neighbors, and family that will be impacted by the loss of food assistance in November by donating food, funds, or time to regional food banks or local pantries to ensure that more food is available to those in need,” said Bryant.

Jesse Wilson is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.   

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11 COMMENTS

  1. The current reductions will affect families as follows:

    A REDUCTION FROM WHAT ?

    In order for this article to be relevant, one needs to know the reduction from the total benefits, as written it’s biased.

    • I believe that I read that a single person who got the maximum benefit recieved $200/month and two people’s max was $376.
      I don’t know how much grocery shopping you do, but that is not adequate to allow a person to eat properly. The day of throwing a chicken, a starch, and a couple of vegetables on the table for less than $7 are long gone. The chicken alone costs more than that.
      With food prices skyrocketing, cutting SNAP benefits makes no sense. In a country as rich as this, NOBODY should ever be hungry.

      • How can food prices be skyrocketing when we are told there is no inflation?

        • We’re being told there is inflation in the cost of basic necessities. There is no inflation in the cost of “extras”, like electronics and boats. That is the problem with the chained CPI proposals to shore up Social Security.

        • obamachev is a commie patholigical liar so you can bet there is inflation……a family of 4 receiving 680 bucks a month is a disgrace……if they was spending their own hard working money they could eat good on half of that……

      • LKB, I think people who receive snap spend more on food than most families. I personally think snap should be eliminated and people receive a cash payment. Over the years I have personally known hundreds of people on food stamps and never met 1 that didn’t sell or trade their benefits. The current rate is 2 for 1, you buy someone $2 worth of food and they give you a dollar. Smokers and drinkers are going to get their needs met. Giving them the full money would in some way actually add to their benefits. I think you are a honest person and we both know that anyone that goes hungry in this country is incompetent, children that go hungry have incompetent parent(s). Money won’t fix that. The art of food preparation has been lost for a large portion of our society.

    • The GOP may well have told a lie or two John, but the lies of the GOP in recent history pale in comparison to the deliberate lies your President Obama told to pass something he had not read and still doesn’t understand. The GOP lies and you lose $8 worth of food stamps. Obama lies and the nation gets railroaded into a healthcare program that will raise the cost beyond the capacity of most people to pay. That lying rascal in the white house will have us turned into a third world country in 3 more years.

      • That lying rascal in the white house as you call him is one of the most self serving and fundamentally dishonest people to have ever been elected to any office. He is also too arrogant to even admit to his damn lies. Everyone but Barack Obama seems to know he has repeated a damaging and intentional lie over and over about our insurance policies.

        • Yes, I know. Now he is lying about his lies. This nation really was stupid to get sucked into all of that Hope and Change bullcrap. I doubt that the dregs of society that elected this buffoon will learn any lessons though. Keep the free shit rolling their way and give hate speeches about the evil rich and the brainless masses will support you on election day.

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