At the Bismarck Tribune, Forum News Service staff John Hageman reports in Study: North Dakota, Minn. could see largest drops in food stamp beneficiaries:
North Dakota and Minnesota would see some of the largest percentage decreases in households receiving food stamp benefits under a proposed federal rule tightening eligibility requirements, according to a study released Thursday.
The study performed by Mathematica, a policy research firm, said 9% of households receiving benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program across the country would lose eligibility under the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal. That number would be higher in North Dakota and Minnesota, where the drop would be 17% and 15%, respectively, amounting to roughly 38,000 households between the two states.
The USDA said in July it was seeking to limit "categorical eligibility," which allows people to be eligible for SNAP when they qualify for other government benefits. Many states have expanded that policy in ways that make "most, if not all" of their low-income households eligible for SNAP, including North Dakota and Minnesota, according to the Congressional Research Service. . . .
The report released Thursday said the change would have little effect in South Dakota, which doesn't have so-called "broad-based categorical eligibility" for SNAP. The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which urged the USDA to withdraw the rule.
Read the response by each state government in Hageman's article. In a related story, AgDaily reported in USDA report shows decline in household food insecurity:
A new report released by the United States Department of Agriculture found that 1 in 9 households (11.1 percent) in the United States encountered difficulty at some time during 2018 in providing enough food for their family. This represents a decline of 0.7 percentage points from last year and is the lowest rate since prior to the recession. There was a particularly large decline in food insecurity among households with children, which went from 15.7.percent in 2017 to 13.9 percent in 2018 and represents the lowest rate in at least 20 years.
While the declines are certainly good news, 37.2 million Americans still face hunger, including 11.2 million children. Some of the groups experiencing above-average rates of food insecurity include households with children led by single parents, households with children under age 6, and households with low incomes.
Among people who are food insecure, approximately one-third have incomes above 185 percent of the federal poverty line, and most do not quality for any federal nutrition assistance programs. For these households, charitable food assistance may be the only option.
“While we are encouraged by the decline in food insecurity rates, the fact that more than 37 million Americans struggle to put food on the table is unacceptable,” said Kate Leone, Chief Government Relations Officer of Feeding America. “Additionally, the Administration has proposed a rule change to SNAP that could jeopardize this progress. By its own estimates, the proposed rule would take SNAP benefits away from more than 3 million individuals and increase food insecurity. We urge the administration and Congress to protect SNAP.” . . .
Those hungry to learn more should read the rest of the article and the USDA report itself.
Photo: SNAP!
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