Food stamp enrollment has surged by 6 million people since the pandemic hit the United States, said the USDA on Wednesday in its first update of SNAP participation in months. Some 42.9 million people received food stamps at latest count, the highest number since October 2017.
The new USDA data, covering the five months ending in September, confirmed think tank estimates of the impact the coronavirus and the accompanying economic recession have had on hunger in America. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, for example, pegged enrollment at 43 million months ago.
“The big story is it [SNAP] is such an important automatic stabilizer,” said Ellen Vollinger of the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group. “People are still struggling to afford food.”
Before the pandemic, SNAP enrollment was about 37 million people. It zoomed to 40.8 million in May, topped 43 million in June, and fluctuated at levels slightly below that in the following months. The rise in enrollment was constrained compared to changes in the U.S. unemployment rate, which was 3.5 percent last February, 14.8 percent last April, and 6.7 percent at the end of 2020. SNAP participation is highest during times of economic distress.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that federal coronavirus aid, such as the temporary $600-a-week supplement in jobless benefits, along with the partial reopening of economic activity may have reduced the need for SNAP benefits during the summer. Enrollment also could be affected by how quickly states revamped their SNAP operations to handle applications over the phone and via the internet.
Food insecurity rates, an indicator of hunger, declined this month for the first time since last fall, to around 21 percent, a drop of 3 percentage points, said economist Diane Schanzenbach of Northwestern University. She based her calculations on data from the Census Bureau.
“The overall decline means 5 million fewer people were hungry in January than in December,” said Schanzenbach on social media. “Still too many hungry, to be sure, w/nearly 24 million reporting sometimes/often not enough to eat.”
President Biden has proposed an extension, through Sept. 30, of the 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits that is set to expire on June 30 and a “multiyear investment” of $3 billion in the WIC program.
The USDA also said that school lunch participation, 10.9 million students per day last September, was one-third of the 29.6 million in September 2019. School food directors have said participation fell sharply when classes moved online although meals were still available for pickup.
WIC participation increased during the pandemic. It totaled 6.3 million pregnant women, new mothers, and young children in September, up from 6.1 million in February 2020.
The USDA chart of SNAP enrollment month by month is available here.