Families receiving food stamps in the D.C. region will receive less money for groceries starting Wednesday.
Benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are expected to decrease by about $93 per family in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. This is down from an increase in 2020 aimed to help households during the pandemic.
Shanita Weeden, who depends on the benefits to put food on her table, said she is bracing for the cut.
“I get roughly about $249 a month, that is with the extra assistance they gave me during the pandemic. If we take away that $95 that means that amount is only gonna last a few days, or a week, especially with prices going up in the grocery store,” Weeden said.
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According to the Capital Area Food Bank, more than 300 thousand people in the D.C. region receive SNAP and estimates that about 1.2 million people in the region needed some type of food assistance last year.
“That translates to 23 fewer meals a month for each of these families, that’s significant,"
Capital Area Food Bank CEO Radha Muthiah said.
Muthiah points out demand for food is still much greater now than before the pandemic.
“Pre-pandemic, on an average year we would distribute about 30 million meals worth of food from the food bank and our network. At the height of the pandemic that went up to 77 million meals worth of food in the course of the year. This past year we distributed 53 million meals worth of food,” Muthiah said.
The cut in benefits comes as inflation is driving up the cost of groceries.
“If prices of food are going up, don’t decrease the amount of resources given,” Weeden said.
