Food Hardship Rate Drops, But Could Soar Again

For the last two years, the Food Research and Action Center has been tracking food hardship in the U.S. Its latest food hardship report (pdf) delivers some good news — and a warning.

First a bit of explanation. Food hardship is similar to the food insecurity (pdf) tracked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. People are counted as food hardship cases when there have been times during the year that they didn't have enough money to buy enough food for themselves or their family.

Now the good news. The food stamp program is working. Program participation continues to set record levels, as it should during this deep recession. It was up to more than 42.3 million people in August — 17 percent more (pdf) than just a year ago.

At the same time, the percent of households experiencing food hardship has declined somewhat since the early phase of the recession. In January 2008, the food hardship rate was 16.5 percent. By the end of the year, it had risen to 19.4 percent.

Then Congress approved a 13.6 percent boost in maximum food stamp benefits as part of the Recovery Act. And the food hardship rate began to go down. The average rate for the last four months of 2009 was 18.5 percent.

For the current year thus far, the rate has averaged 17.7 percent — still disturbingly high, but considerably below the November 2008 peak of 20.3 percent.

It's also a fairly encouraging number, given the ongoing jobs crisis. In fact, says Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, "given continued unemployment and underemployment, the food hardship rates should actually be much higher."

And now the warning.

Food hardship rates could start rising again, unless the economy unexpectedly generates a vast number of new jobs PDQ. Congress has already cut back the food stamp boost to help pay for some additional fiscal relief to the states.

Now another $2.2 billion cutback is pending to help pay for the proposed reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. If the House of Representatives approves the Senate version of the bill as-is, food stamp recipients will start getting, on average, about $59 less per month in November 2013.

As blogger Taylor Leake recently reported, poor families in Philadelphia are already running out of food stamp benefits before the end of the month. Imagine how food hardship cases will rise there if the House decides to go along with the accelerated cutback. And not there only.

Nationwide, the maximum food stamp benefit for a family of four is $688 a month. The Congressional Research Service estimates (pdf) that benefits will drop by $10 to $15 per person when the boost is terminated. That could leave the family with only $608 for an entire month or about $1.67 per person per meal.

Look for many more food hardship cases when that happens. Stop it from happening as soon as it would under the Senate's child nutrition bill. Tell your Representative in the House to oppose any further cut in food stamp benefits.

Photo credit: Alameda County Community Food Bank