Surviving on less than $6 a meal
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, enables low-income families to put basic food on the table. This month, SNAP experienced dramatic cuts that have left many families and seniors struggling to figure out how to survive on less than $6 per meal.
That can mean cheaper, less-healthy options like canned and processed foods, which are high in sugar and are major drivers of obesity, reporter Laura Reiley tells “Post Reports.”
“It's a hunger that looks different than it used to in this country,” Reiley says.
So why the change? Amid heightened financial and food insecurity during the pandemic, a federal assistance program upped monthly SNAP benefits. That program came to a screeching halt last week, despite a continued rise in food prices. Many families and seniors are seeing their monthly food assistance drop by more than $100.
State-level shifts are also reducing the level of assistance. And yet, “the food that we routinely feed our families has gotten a lot more expensive,” Reiley continues. “The math that's been used to determine how much a meal costs has not kept up with inflation or how we eat.”
Read more:
Millions could see cuts to food stamps as federal pandemic aid ends.
A mile-long line for free food offers a warning as covid benefits end.
Republicans take aim at food stamps in growing fight over federal debt.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Laura, what are the conversations like when you talk to people who are stressed about |
| 0:07.2 | just being able to feed themselves or feed their children? |
| 0:10.8 | Well, unfortunately, a lot of things that happen like this fly below the radar. |
| 0:16.8 | Laura Wiley is a reporter at the post who covers the business of food. |
| 0:20.8 | If you're a single parent caring for kids and maybe you have your mom living with you |
| 0:24.6 | and you're hustling between two half-time jobs, you're probably not really paying |
| 0:29.7 | attention to the news. |
| 0:32.0 | So I think that there are a lot of people who don't yet know that their next EBT card benefit |
| 0:38.8 | is going to be dramatically slashed. |
| 0:43.1 | More than 30 million Americans rely on a federal program that helps families by food. |
| 0:48.2 | It's called SNAP, the supplemental nutrition assistance program. |
| 0:51.9 | But you might know it as food stamps. |
| 0:53.9 | And starting this month, a lot of households that depend on it will see sharp cuts to their |
| 0:59.4 | pets. |
| 1:00.4 | Well, that's because a program put in place that the height of the pandemic which increased |
| 1:04.0 | SNAP benefits is ending. |
| 1:06.2 | Now, seniors and families are facing tough decisions about how to cut their grocery bills, |
| 1:11.7 | even as the prices for basic food items like eggs and milk are climbing at historic rates. |
| 1:19.8 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:23.5 | It's Tuesday, March 7. |
| 1:25.3 | I'm your guest host, Libby Casey. |
| 1:27.9 | Today, we look at the fallout from cutting the aid that helps Americans buy groceries |
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