Amna: In the last three years,
households eligible for food
assistance received at least $95
more per month as part of a
pandemic era increase that was
designed to combat hunger.
Those benefits will expire
tomorrow nationwide.
Meaning a smaller monthly food
budget for nearly 30 million
summit -- 30 million Americans.
William brangham spent yesterday
at a food bank that is gearing
up to meet the increased need
this cut will likely trigger.
William: It's another busy week
at the fauquier community food
bank in warrenton, Virginia.
About 25 families a day come
here to stock up on free
groceries.
39-year-old Tiffany Robinson
visits the food bank to help
stretch the money she receives
through the supplemental
nutrition assistance program,
known as snap.
The very benefits that will soon
be cut back.
>> That's really going to affect
my budget because I'm going to
have to come out of pocket even
more than I do now to get
groceries.
William: Snap, which used to be
called food stamps, is the
department of agriculture
program that provides monthly
stipends for lower-income
Americans to spend on groceries.
In March 2020, congress passed
temporary snap increases to help
people weather the
pandemic-economy, but last
December passed another law
ending those increases.
So tomorrow Americans in 32
states and other jurisdictions
will see those extra snap
benefits expire.
18 states have already rolled
them back.
A 2022 urban institute study
found these emergency allotments
kept more than four million
people above the poverty line in
the last quarter of 2021,
reducing poverty by nearly ten
percent.
The coming reduction in snap
benefits will be different for
different households, depending
on their circumstances.
But on average, a family of
three would lose nearly $200 a
month from their benefits.
The cuts will reduce payments to
about six dollars per person per
day.
Robinson says that's not enough
to feed her children, and
she will need to depend on this
food bank even more.
>> I am panicking a little bit.
Like I really was when I got
that message.
I was like, what am I going to
do next month?
It really sent me into a
stressful state.
I'm worried about my children.
My children eat more than I do.
I will probably have to come
here more often or try to find
other outlets so that I can get
food for my children.
William: Food pantries like this
are pressed on two sides.
Rising demand for their help,
but rising costs constraining
how much they can provide.
Staples like eggs are up over
seventy percent compared to last
year.
>> We've got tomato soup this
month, applesauce, Mac & cheese.
William: Most of these goods
come via donations from local
grocery stores, or bought with
local donations, or proceeds
from their thrift store next
door.
Sharon Ames is the executive
director of the fauquier
community food bank.
We talked yesterday about her
community and what these cuts
might meet for -- mean for them.
Who is it that you serve?
Who are the people that come
through your door?
>> It is all walks of life.
And I'll go back to the thrift
store side.
I have people now who used to
shop over there and know their
money went to buy food here, but
now they've had to come to me
and say, times have changed.
Gas is high, food is high.
I need your help.
We help the homeless.
It's everybody.
William: We're here talking to
you because the pandemic snap
benefit extension is about to
expire.
Do you have a sense of what
that's going to mean for the
people of this county?
>> We are going to feel it.
They're going to feel like they
are starting to call now and ask
us questions about, you know, if
we can expand and they can get
more food if need be.
And we always answer, yes, we
will do the very, very best we
can.
From what I am hearing and what
I'm understanding, it can be
around $95 to $100 a month.
But again, that depends on your
family, how big their family is,
how much they get to what their
cut will be.
William: For people who may not
appreciate the circumstances of
the families that you help, $95
to $100 a month.
How significant is that?
>> That's huge.
That's $25 a week.
That's huge.
That's milk.
That's bread.
That's peanut butter.
That's hamburger.
It's huge.
That's big to them.
William: Is it your sense that
most of the families that will
see a cut in their benefits are
going to be okay?
>> They will be okay.
They'll manage.
They'll survive.
They'll probably make an extra
phone call to us and say, look,
I've got three or four more days
and a month to go.
I'm out of food.
Can you give me food?
And we will.
I believe in my community and I
believe if we reach out and say
we need help, that it will be
there.
I think the other thing we have
to look at is down the road --
think about summer when the
children are out of school.
No free lunches, no free
breakfast.
William: There are some people
in congress who argued the snap
program, the food stamp program,
is too expensive and this
pandemic extension bump-up was
too much, and that we have to
dial those costs down.
I mean, as someone who sees the
beneficiaries of this program,
what do you think of that
argument?
>> We are going to see children
who are not going to function in
school because they are not fed
properly, they go to bed hungry.
We are going to see elderly that
give up their medicine, diabetic
medicine, whatever it may be.
William: The choice between food
and medicine is too great.
>> Absolutely.
It is.
It is going to affect everybody.
And I'm not really sure how
congress is coming up with the
fact that it's too much money,
when you're going to feed
people, and keep them healthy,
and make them part of our
society.
William: You think that's not
the right place to cut?
>> No.
And I know the argument is,
that's why when I say that we
qualified -- qualify people, a
lot of people view a food pantry
as he just go in and say hey, I
want food.
It's not like that.
We do qualify you, snap does
too, so it's it is a program
that has rules.
William: You are meeting people
with demonstrated needs.
>> You see somebody came to you,
you give them a can of tuna and
they hold it to them and say, oh
my god, Sharon, this is four
meals.
No, it's not.
It's one.
That will make you stop and
think.
And at our level, we see that,
we hear that.
Congress don't.
William: All right.
Sharon Ames, thank you so much
for talking with us.
>> Thank you very much.