For roughly three years, families struggling with the impact of COVID-19 qualified for extra money to help put food on the table, but not anymore after the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, ended at the beginning of March.
where their next meal is going to come from. we should all be ashamed of that. i tell people all the time, hunger is a political condition. we have food, we have resources, we have everything but the political will. maybe this latest controversial will help generate the political will so that washington will finally do something more permanent. let s talk about specifics here because the average recipient is seeing about $90 per less a month, but in your state, a family with young kids could get as much as $220 less a month. what are you proposing to helping millions of people who say i m already falling off the cliff. we re lucky, we have a governor in maura healey who is brought to the legislature, an emergency appropriations bill to ease that cliff. it will buy time for people, three months, will get 40% of what they were getting. and congress? well, congress is another story. we have a republican majority in the house, and it s talking about gutting the s.n.a.p.
banks. thank you for being here and what you do, julia. great to have you from a food bank. the economy is great what you hear from president biden. they say the economy is strong. what do you see there as these covid-related food benefits will unwind this month? you know, texas our unemployment rate is at an all-time low but the cost of living is at an all-time high especially with the four basic necessities, rent, utilities, gasoline for your car and food. in fact, food is a leader in inflationary rates today and so that s really impacting our families that rely on federal support such as the snap program. dana: so how are you then trying to deal with that? i want to show everybody on the screen the prices that people are paying at the grocery store. we all know those are up a lot. 70% increase for eggs, for example, milk. the basic necessities.
week. low income families will receive at least $95 less per month through the snap program. in april of 2020 and government began providing what were called emergency allotments and the families first corona advisory response at. increasing security insecurity that so many people faced as the pandemic intensified. now with food prices so high, extra benefits ending, many low income americans don t know how they will continue to feed their families. joining me now nbc news correspondent who is live at a grocery store in my neighborhood, prince george s county, maryland. marissa, what a shoppers they re telling you about the expire benefits and how that will affect them? this is something that shoppers and people across the country a lot son. everyone knows just how much more expensive groceries have
inflation in the u.s. continues to soar. andrew shane is the managing director of public policy at grace and child poverty california, and he joins me now from san francisco. appreciate you being with us. thank you so much. so the covid supplemental nutrition assistance program known as s.n.a.p. ends today, leaving tens of millions of americans in 32 states without those benefits, meaning less money for food each month at a time when inflation is at record levels. so how much money will the s.n.a.p. households lose? and what impact will this likely have, particularly on children? thanks for the question, and thanks for your attention to this. unfortunately, it s a very serious day. here we are when the emergency allotments for the s.n.a.p. program, often known as food stamps, are ending. they re ending prematurely