Food stamps — now $7 a day — are set to get chopped

Soon after the pandemic shuttered the U.S. economy, food banks were overwhelmed by demand, with cars lined up for miles as people in need waited to pick up groceries. As the hunger crisis worsened, the federal government stepped in to increase food stamp benefits. 

Now that enhancement is set to expire at the end of September, just as many states are also rolling back an additional boost to food stamp payments. The extra funding has helped expand the daily food stamp benefit to $7 per person, up from $4 before the public health crisis, according to Ellen Vollinger, the legal/food stamp director at the Food Research & Action Center, or FRAC, an anti-hunger nonprofit group.  Minus the extra 15% in benefits, a typical food stamp payment falls short of low-income meal costs in 96% of U.S. counties, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute, a centrist think tank. The rollback in benefits comes amid ongoing financial hardship and uncertainty over the economic recovery as the COVID-19 Delta variant ripples across the nation.