Food stamp benefits will rise by 5.3 percent in October, to a maximum of $680 per month for a family of four in the continental United States, said the USDA Food and Nutrition Service on Wednesday. The cost-of-living adjustment was announced even as anti-hunger groups are calling for a temporary 15 percent increase in benefits during the pandemic.
The USDA revises SNAP benefits annually, based on food costs reported each June, and the new benefits take effect with the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year. The USDA and the Labor Department have reported unusually sharp increases in food prices this spring, driven by coronavirus-caused surges in meat, poultry, and fish prices.
“I don’t know as it changes the policy debate,” said Ellen Vollinger of the anti-hunger Food Research and Action Center. She described the adjustment as a bookkeeping matter dictated by a formula. “We still need the boost we have been calling for.” Advocates say the 15 percent increase would help hungry Americans buy food and act as an economic stimulus as well.
Deputy Agriculture Undersecretary Brandon Lipps told USDA radio news, “Well, it’s a really big deal because, as you know, so many Americans are struggling right now with ongoing difficulties from Covid.”
Some 43 million people — more than one in eight Americans — received food stamps in May, an increase of 6.2 million in the three months since the coronavirus pandemic swept the country. The White House has opposed including an increase in SNAP benefits in coronavirus relief legislation. Anti-hunger groups are pressing for an increase in the bill now under discussion on Capitol Hill.
Grocery prices are rising at the same time the U.S. economy is shrinking and unemployment is the highest it’s been since the Depression. Researchers say food insecurity rates have doubled since late winter. Food prices usually track the overall U.S. inflation rate and rise slowly. The average increase in SNAP benefits is 2 percent a year, said the FNS.