USDA increasing SNAP benefits with pandemic relief funds

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Monday that it would be increasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, by 15 percent through funds from Democr…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/544353-usda-increasing-snap-benefits-with-pandemic-relief-funds
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Joseph Choi

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Tanden to highlight her reliance on food stamps, public assistance during confirmation remarks

Neera Tanden will highlight her family’s past reliance on government assistance during her first confirmation hearing Tuesday morning as senators consider her nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

Testifying as President Joe Biden’s pick for director of the White House budget office, Tanden will discuss her mother’s decision to flee the stigma of divorce in India in hopes of providing her children with better opportunities in the United States. “We relied on food stamps to eat, and Section 8 vouchers to pay the rent,” Tanden will tell the Senate Homeland Security Committee, according to a copy of her opening remarks.

It is OMB that is tasked with making many of the “budgetary choices that reflected our nation’s values,” making possible her path in life, Tanden plans to say.

“At school, I remember being the only kid in the cafeteria line who used ten-cent vouchers from the Free Lunch Program,” she will testify. “Within just a few years, my mother found a job, and a few years later she was earning a middle class salary. Soon, she was able to buy a home, and eventually see her children off to college and beyond. I spend every day of my life grateful for a nation, and a government, that had faith in my mother and in me — that invested in our humanity and gave me a fair shot to pursue my potential.“

Republican criticism: While Tanden is expected to face an easier path to confirmation now that Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate, she will almost certainly face tough questions from Republicans about her role as a longtime partisan advocate with a public history of criticizing the GOP on social media. Now president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, Tanden will acknowledge the distinction between her job as head of the liberal think tank and the position Biden has nominated her to fill as one of the nation’s top public servants.

“Over the last few years, it’s been part of my role to be an impassioned advocate. I understand, though, that the role of OMB Director calls for bipartisan action, as well as a nonpartisan adherence to facts and evidence,” she will say. “I would vigorously enforce my ironclad belief that our government should serve all Americans — regardless of party — in every corner of the country.“

Democrats are likely to pepper Tanden with questions about transparency at the agency after four years of Trump administration budget actions that frequently broke precedent and proved legally dubious, while Democrats’ demands for information often went unanswered.

Stakeholder support: Democrats are also expected to highlight the outside groups that are advocating for Tanden’s confirmation. An aide for the committee noted that Tanden has received “broad stakeholder support, including from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, because they believe she is well qualified to help families, small businesses, seniors and other Americans.”

In a statement to the committee ahead of the confirmation hearing, the Chamber of Commerce’s top liaison to Congress said the group supports her confirmation and that “while we may not always agree with Ms. Tanden, we anticipate that she will have an open door and an open mind as Director.”

“Ms. Tanden is well-qualified to lead OMB and brings an established track record of engagement with the business community,” Jack Howard wrote on behalf of the nation’s largest lobbying group. “Ms. Tanden has proven a frequent partner and collaborator, particularly on international trade issues. Her willingness to consider different perspectives will be important as she shapes the budget and policy proposals for the Biden Administration.”

What’s next: Tanden will also appear before the Budget Committee on Wednesday morning. Both panels must approve her nomination before Senate leaders can schedule a floor vote.

If confirmed as director of OMB, Tanden will play a central role in the Biden administration’s fiscal and regulatory response to the country’s health and economic crises.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/09/neera-tanden-confirmation-remarks-467833
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Caitlin Emma

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Food stamp spending jumped nearly 50 percent in 2020

Federal spending on the country’s largest nutrition assistance program increased by nearly 50 percent in 2020 amid the economic shock of the pandemic, according to newly released data from the Agriculture Department.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, still known to many as food stamps, cost nearly $90 billion in fiscal year 2020, USDA said Wednesday. That’s a major jump from just over $60 billion in 2019.

The why: The massive increase in cost is a result of two major factors: Some 8 million more Americans are getting aid, and benefit levels were increased by Congress on an emergency basis last spring to help blunt the effects of widespread business and school shutdowns.

There are now nearly 44 million individuals on the program, up more than 20 percent from about 36 million in 2019, according to the latest data. The average monthly benefit per person has jumped to $161, from about $130.

Roughly 5 million more households got help from the program in 2020 compared with 2019.

The backstory: The Trump administration had fallen behind on reporting data on SNAP participation, so the full picture of how the program expanded was not previously known.

The cost of SNAP had been steadily declining before Covid-19 as the economy improved and wages started to rise.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/27/food-stamp-spending-2020-463241
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Helena Bottemiller Evich

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Biden increases food aid payments to low-income families with children

The Biden administration will announce Friday that it is bumping up aid payments for millions of low-income households with children by 15 percent. It is part of several new actions aimed at getting more government assistance out as the pandemic drags on.

The backstory: The Pandemic-EBT program, known as P-EBT, was created last spring to help replace the subsidized or free meals that tens of millions of children normally get at school. The program gives households benefits on a debit-like card that can only be used to buy groceries.

P-EBT worked relatively well to replace meals in the spring, because almost all schools were closed. But now the program is more complicated with some schools doing online-only learning, some in-person and some a mix of the two.

The program has been plagued with delays this year because of a mix of political failure in Congress and bureaucracy at the Agriculture Department.

As POLITICO reported last month, the vast majority of households have not received any P-EBT benefits this school year, even though the money has been authorized since September. Many states have not even sent USDA their plans for approval, which means the aid will be even further delayed.

What’s new: This school year, households are eligible to receive up to $5.86 per child per day of school missed. That rate will increase by 15 percent. It’s not clear whether the increase will be applied to the many months of benefits that are owed to most families that are eligible.

“As soon as the president took office, he called for immediate action on the hunger crisis gripping vulnerable families and children,” said Stacy Dean, deputy undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. “The announcement today provides more food dollars directly to food insecure kids living in low-income households who are missing critical meals due to school closures.”

More SNAP increases on tap: The USDA also said it will begin working with the Department of Justice to review whether it can provide an increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments to nearly 40 percent of households that have seen no real increase during the crisis.

Under the Trump administration, USDA determined that it only had the authority to bring all SNAP households up to existing maximum payment levels, which meant that households already getting the maximum payments saw no increase. (The Trump administration defended its stance in court last year).

The USDA is also now beginning to review what’s known as the Thrifty Food Plan, the basis for how the department comes up with the payment levels that households should get in the program.

The current plan “is out of date with the economic realities most struggling households face when trying to buy and prepare healthy food,” according to the department. “As a result, the benefits fall short of what a healthy, adequate diet costs for many households.”

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/22/biden-food-aid-payments-low-income-households-461302
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Helena Bottemiller Evich

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Food banks fear possible end of USDA Farmers to Families Food Box program

The program, which sent more than a 100 million boxes of fresh food to families straight from food distributors, was part of a Covid-19 relief program that might not continue in 2021.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/food-banks-fear-possible-end-usda-farmers-families-food-box-n1252578
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Ben Kesslen

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USDA rule would cut food stamp benefits for 3.1 million

About 3.1 million people would lose food stamp benefits under the Trump administration’s proposal to tighten automatic eligibility requirements for the food stamp program. The Agriculture Department said Tuesday that the rule would close “a loophole” that enables people receiving only minimal benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to be eligible automatically for food stamps without undergoing further checks on their income or assets. Too often, states have misused this flexibility without restraint,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement.

Source: https://news.yahoo.com/usda-rule-could-affect-3-141608449.html
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Walmart now accepts SNAP for online grocery orders at all 2,500+ pickup locations

Walmart has been working to address the needs of low-income shoppers for some time. More recently, it’s been introducing new ways to serve customers on public assistance. In fall 2017, the retailer began a small test allowing customers to pay for online grocery orders using their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits — more casually known as food stamps. Today, Walmart says SNAP is now accepted for online grocery orders at all of the company’s 2,500-plus pickup locations.

For SNAP customers, the process of placing an online order is as simple as it is for those paying with debit or credit. They put in their zip code on the Walmart Grocery website to select their local store, then shop for groceries online by adding items to their cart. At checkout, they select a pickup time and choose “EBT card” as their payment option.

When they arrive at the store, they’ll park in the customer spaces marked for Grocery Pickup orders and give their EBT benefit card to the store associate who brings their order to the car.

As Walmart and other retailers have explained, online shopping should not be considered a luxury. Low-income shoppers can often save money by going online where there can be better deals available than at local stores. In Walmart’s case, however, online groceries are priced the same as they are in store.

In addition, be able to shop online can be a huge time saver for those working multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Walmart says it’s planning to accept the SNAP payment option at over 3,100 Walmart stores by the end of the year.

The SNAP at Pickup program isn’t the only way Walmart is serving low-income customers.

The retailer also announced in April its participation in a USDA pilot program designed to test the acceptance of SNAP payments directly on retailers’ websites for both grocery pickup and delivery. Walmart is one of several retailers who agreed to participate in the pilot, along with Amazon, Dash’s Market, FreshDirect, Hy-Vee, Safeway, and Wright’s Markets.

Another pilot we recently spotted is focused on bringing down the cost of grocery delivery by offering customers the option to pay an annual subscription fee of $98, instead of per-delivery charges which can add up over time. Though not aimed at the low-income shopper, it is a viable alternative to rival grocery delivery programs from Target (Shipt), Amazon, and Instacart.

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Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/25/walmart-now-accepts-snap-for-online-grocery-orders-at-all-2500-pickup-locations/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Sarah Perez

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