Food stamp COVID exemptions set to expire
Jul. 25—HIGH POINT — Jo Williams has devoted much of her life to countering food hardship through her service at local food pantries, meaning she stays aware of changes that could impact how many people she has to help.
The latest issue on her radar screen as a community benefactor is the end of exemptions to qualify for food stamp benefits during the coronavirus pandemic that were put in place more than three years ago at the outset of the crisis. With the conclusion earlier this year of the federal COVID-19 emergency declaration, policies that made it easier for people to get food stamps are getting ready to be rolled back.
About 500,000 food stamp recipients — and possibly as many as 1 million — could be cut off from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits beginning in October, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The program's work-reporting requirement will be put back in place after being temporarily suspended during the pandemic.
"Not all of those people will lose SNAP," said Jacob Kaufman-Waldron, deputy director for media relations with the center. "Some may be exempt or working enough hours. But many of them will lose SNAP."
For Williams and her colleagues at the Food Pantry of the Triad, the changes in what's referred to as SNAP benefits may mean a spike in people seeking food donations. Williams told The High Point Enterprise that the food pantry on Johnson Street near the intersection with Lexington Avenue stays busy each day before the pandemic exemptions are reversed.
"I'm on the phone all the time as it is right now," said Williams, who's executive director of the food pantry. "It's unbelievable what we give out."
Last Saturday, the food pantry took a vanload of food for a distribution on Furlough Avenue in east High Point.
"In 15 minutes that food was gone," she said. "There were hams, vegetables, a whole new case of bananas."
On regular occasions people are lined up outside the food pantry waiting patiently as the building opens for the day for food distributions, Williams said.
In a report earlier this month on the pending expiration of the COVID-19 food stamps exemption, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates several groups could be affected.
People who are between jobs, who have health conditions or caregiving responsibilities that temporarily interfere with work, who have work hours fluctuate or who face challenges contending with the bureaucracy of reporting requirements will be at risk of losing assistance, according to the center.
In North Carolina, there were 1.59 million beneficiaries in the state food assistance as of June, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. The department has so far identified up to 105,000 food assistance recipients in North Carolina that could be affected by the end of the pandemic exemptions.
State Rep. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, told The Enterprise that many food stamp recipients might be caught off guard this fall because the end of the pandemic SNAP exemptions haven't gotten widespread publicity.
Government and social policy should make it easier, not harder, for people to have basic food needs met, said Brockman, whose legislative district includes neighborhoods in High Point census tracts that are among the poorest in North Carolina. He sees the issue as a moral imperative.
"I'm personally a Christian, and we have many people in our country who are Christian," he said. "And I don't believe Jesus talked about making sure people worked before He healed or fed them."
pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul
