Volunteers gather food at the New Hampshire Food Bank in Manchester, N.H. on Oct. 1, 2013. The temporary increase in food stamps expired Oct. 31, meaning for millions of Americans, the benefits that help them put food on the table every month wonít stretch as far as they have for the past four years.(Photo: Jim Cole AP)
Food stamp benefits will be cut to more than 47 million Americans starting Friday as a temporary boost to the federal program comes to an end without a new budget from a deadlocked Congress to replace it.
Under the program, known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, a family of four who get $668 per month in benefits will find that amount cut by $36.
Vulnerable populations will be hardest hit. In New York, more than 1 million elderly people or those with disabilities will feel the impact, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. About 2.3 million children in both California and Texas will be affected.
In California overall, the cuts will affect more than 4 million residents and will amount to the equivalent of losing roughly 21 individual meals per month based on calculations used by the department of Agriculture, The San Jose Mercury News reports.
In Ohio, Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, head of Ohio Association of Foodbanks, says the state's charities and food pantries that distributed $227 million in food to needy residents in 2012 will not be able to make up a $190 million deficit in 2014, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reports.
"We will have to do what low-income people do, which is reduce the amount of food we hand out and ration," she said. Hamler-Fugitt tells the newspaper that she expects increased hunger in the state, affecting the health of senior citizens and people with disabilities and forcing more school children to go to classes without eating.
The program, which benefits 1 in 7 Americans, is administered by the department of Agriculture and is authorized in the omnibus farm bill covering all agricultural program.
NATIONWIDE: How food stamp cuts will affect your state
Two factors are driving the fiscal squeeze. The first is the winding up of additional SNAP allocations under President Obama's 2009 stimulus bill. The second -- and primary factor -- is the inability of Congress to agree on an omnibus, five-year farm bill.
Negotiations on a new bill, including cuts to the SNAP program, began Wednesday. Five-year farm bills passed by both the House and the Senate would cut food stamps, reductions that would come on top of the cut that will go into effect Friday. But the two chambers are far apart on the amounts.
House Republicans want to cut $39 billion from the program over the next decade and tighten eligibility while Senate Democrats favor only a $4 billion cut.
The bill usually wins bipartisan support because it includes funds for agricultural programs favored by farm and business interests and SNAP which is supported by liberal and urban interests.
Last year the average monthly benefit per household for all 50 states and the District of Columbia was $278, according to Stateline, the daily news service of the Pew charitable Trusts.
"(They) will take away more food in our city than we, Food Bank For New York City, the nation's largest food bank, distribute in an entire year," said Margarette Purvis, the Food Bank president and CEO, the Daily News of New York reports.
