The day marks the end of additional food assistance in 32 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the Virgin Islands, and it is estimated that low-income families who previously benefited will see their monthly allowances cut by between $100 and $250 per month.
The program, which began in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, kept 4.2 million people above the poverty line in the last quarter of 2021, according to research from the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. On the economic and social policy of Washington. .
More than 42 million people have taken advantage of it as of last October, the latest period for which federal data is available, according to a report by NBC News.
Even though the deadline for using benefits was until today, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi and Georgia have chosen to end emergency allowance early.
In the latter territory, the Community Food Bank of Atlanta reported NBC News a 34 percent increase in visits to get groceries, from May 2022 when the program ended, to December of that year.
With financial margins thinning, the initiative provided crucial, albeit partial, protection for many Americans, said Mark Hamrick, chief economist at financial services firm Bankrate.
Cut it off now “means removing a component of the social safety net that would cause some people to experience food insecurity. The expiration or unavailability of this feature cannot actually happen at an inopportune moment,” he told the news source.
Food prices in the United States increased by 11.3 percent last January compared to the same month in 2022, according to data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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