DETROIT – Kinda Makini-Anderson has been providing hot meals for families on the east side of Detroit during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to his accounts, the nonprofit Inner City Youth Group of Makini-Anderson has provided more than 150,000 meals in the past 10 months.
“We have always been there since 2009, helping the community,” she said, on a recent snowy morning, after delivering breakfast to a local family. “But since the pandemic, it has been an overload.”
For the vast majority of the families she helps feed, however, these meals are not the only support they count on to survive. Makini-Anderson estimates that 98 percent of the families she serves are already receiving benefits from the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – the government assistance program formerly known as food stamps. But the benefits provided by the country’s most important program to the hungry are simply not enough.
Experts and advocates say the pandemic has exposed an outdated and inadequate system.
Joseph Llobrera, research director for the food assistance team at the Center for Budget and Political Priorities study center in Washington, said the research shows that SNAP is not doing the job one – feeding the hungry. “People are left without benefits two to three weeks a month,” he said.
Food aid organizations – from small church pantries and large regional food banks to organizations like Makini-Anderson – have borne a double burden since the pandemic began. Support the millions of Americans who have recently faced food insecurity, who do not participate or do not qualify for SNAP, while serving those who already receive assistance who are unable to do so throughout the month.
Before the pandemic, the average SNAP benefit was about $ 1.40 per person, per meal. During the pandemic, everyone in the SNAP was raised to the maximum benefit of $ 2 per meal, but families with the maximum, the most needy, received no additional money.
Last month, the Biden government challenged the United States Department of Agriculture, which manages SNAP, to fix this, but also to take a look ahead of plan on the basis of the benefit itself. The maximum levels of benefits for the SNAP are dictated by something called an “economic meal plan”, which should reflect the minimum cost of a nutritious diet.
But the Thrifty Food Plan has not been revised since 2006 and has not been dramatically reassessed since the 1970s, only rising in line with inflation over the years. The plan should not be reevaluated for another two years.
“The Thrifty Food Plan is based on the assumption that people have a lot of time to make prices and prepare meals from scratch, but the reality is that many families are juggling different jobs,” said Llobera. “Build an eating plan that assumes you are going to soak the beans overnight instead of using canned beans – is that realistic?” Llobrera notes that the plan is also based on an outdated assumption that people spend most of their income on food, when in reality, most people now spend most of their wages on housing.
In the meantime, food banks have filled the gap.
“We’ve been in this for what? Ten, 11 months? And unfortunately, we didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Brian Barks, president and CEO of Food Bank for the Heartland, which serves 93 counties in Nebraska and Iowa.
When the pandemic started, NBC News reported that Barks’ food bank had been so inundated with requests for assistance to apply for SNAP benefits that they had a backlog. Eventually, the food bank had to withdraw its ads about its SNAP assistance program because they were simply getting too many calls to answer.
“We would have such a large volume of calls that, with our limited team, we were unable to follow up,” explained Barks.
But the amount of food they had to buy to meet their needs was increasing. It fell from $ 80,000 a month before the pandemic, to the impressive $ 1.5 million that the food bank now spends every month to feed the pantries – and the people – who depend on them.
“There are some serious questions that Americans ask themselves every day. ‘Do I get the medicine I need or do I buy food? Do I pay the electricity bill or buy food? ‘ People who are in that gap who do not qualify for SNAP benefits and those who need and still need food assistance, this is a big gap, ”he said.
Barks’ food bank is not the only one in this respect. Across the country, in Feeding San Diego, which serves San Diego County and surrounding areas, 700,000 more meals are being distributed each month compared to the same period last year.
Barks said the changes in SNAP announced by the Biden government last month made him hopeful.
“SNAP is political football. It always has been,” he said, “but it is a fundamental and essential tool that every food bank needs to do the work we do. We need the help of the federal government, the state and local governments, to do this job. People who are waiting for food banks to solve the problem of food insecurity in our country, we are not going to do that. “
In fact, the national chain of food banks Feeding America, of which Food Bank for the Heartland and Feeding San Diego are members, conducted a study showing that for each meal provided by one of its food banks, SNAP can provide nine.
This is worrying for people like Makini-Anderson in Detroit, who often see struggling families who do not qualify for the boost that SNAP benefits offer.
Families like Barry Chambliss and Melissa Michaux. With five children under the age of ten and dramatic income losses during the pandemic, Chambliss and Michaux are surviving. But when they signed up for SNAP in the spring, they were denied.
“On the last negative I received, it said that I needed to deliver end-of-employment checks for jobs that Barry hadn’t had in years,” said Michaux.
Efforts to challenge that decision and contact a social worker have led to missed calls and frustration, the couple said.
“People used to come into the office and actually fill out the registration form and they can get help with that,” noted Makini-Anderson, “[Now] it is difficult for them to browse the phone to fill this application. “
It is something that Stacy Dean, the new deputy assistant secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at the USDA is well aware of.
“That’s what in my new job is keeping me up at night. Who are we missing out on?” said Dean. “The process for applying for SNAP benefits is difficult. It’s incredibly rigorous. And trying to do this in a remote environment has made it a little more difficult for the states that administer the program and for the people who need the benefits.”
The cost of administering SNAP is divided between the states and the federal government, but as an additional 6 million people in America were added to SNAP lists last year, many states were essentially asked to do more with the same or fewer resources, and doing everything remotely.
“One of the things we want to do is loosen up some of the rules to make it easier for states to administer the program,” said Dean.
She acknowledged that food banks have increased. “They can meet an emergency need very quickly,” said Dean. “Unfortunately, in this environment, they have been asked to do much more. Which is providing food for longer periods and complementing federal food programs ”.
For those who help to meet needs, this is an omen. After the Great Recession in 2008, it took a decade for food insecurity to return to previous levels.
“It’s using every ounce of energy we have to try to help those people who have been added to the list of those who are now food insecure,” said Barks. “Anything, anything that can be done to alleviate the pressure that food banks are facing, to buy and distribute food, will benefit hunger-fighting organizations in a positive way.”
In Detroit, things are looking up for Chambliss and Michaux. When contacted for comment, a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said the agency could not comment on the details of the Chambliss and Michaux case due to confidentiality requirements. But since a Nightly News story aired earlier this month focusing on the couple and their children, Makini-Anderson says the agency reached out to the family by offering help.
Kenzi Abou-Sabe and Kevin Monahan reported from New York. Cynthia McFadden reported from Connecticut.