Rural families will be impacted by pause in SNAP benefits due to federal government shutdown

Roughly 41 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits.
(Photo by Aaron Doucett, Unsplash)

Due to the federal government shutdown, funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will cease soon, and the Trump administration has not made any plans to find money to keep the program running. 

“The pause in food stamp benefits that will hit Saturday, November 1 will disproportionately hurt rural families,” Sarah Melotte and Tim Marema reported for The Daily Yonder.

Food pantries are preparing for a surge in people who cannot afford groceries without SNAP. 

“Rural families top the list of groups that will be affected by the freeze in SNAP benefits. The Daily Yonder found that 13.7% of rural households receive SNAP benefits, compared to 11.4% of metropolitan households,” Melotte and Marema wrote. 

Additionally, SNAP benefits mostly go to households with children, a trend that can be seen in both urban and rural counties.

“Twenty-five Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday to force it to resume food stamps payments,” Julianna Bragg reported for Axios.

States warn millions of SNAP and WIC recipients that a continued shutdown will pause November benefits

Area food banks are preparing for a surge in need.
(Adobe Stock photo)

At least 25 states issued benefit gap warnings to the more than 41 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients and nearly 7 million families who receive aid from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC," report Leah Douglas and P.J. Huffstutter of Reuters.

Minerva Delgado, who directs Alliance to End Hunger activities, told Reuters, "Families are going to be hurt by this should it continue, at a time we know families are struggling to make ends meet."

Food banks in states that issued SNAP and WIC warnings are already hard at work to meet increased demand. But some food pantries already face food shortages due to USDA cuts to its food bank support earlier this year.

Potential loss of grocery benefits would disproportionately hurt rural residents, veterans and elderly individuals who tend to be more dependent on SNAP benefits. Additionally, rural food pantries will face significant supply challenges because they rely more heavily on Department of Agriculture programs and have fewer private donors to help them.

According to Reuters, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told NewsNation that SNAP benefits would "go away" without a deal to reopen the government by November.

The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities "estimates that about $5 billion is available in a contingency fund and is calling on the administration to use that for partial benefits in November," reports Geoff Mulvihill of The Associated Press. "Forty-six of the 47 Democrats in the U.S. Senate sent a letter Thursday to Rollins calling on her to release the contingency money."

States that issued verifiable benefit loss warnings include: Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Kentucky, Florida, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Louisiana, Vermont and Virginia pledged to maintain food aid to recipients despite potential gaps in federal funding.

As traditional food bank volunteers age, finding enough workers to staff pantries is becoming a challenge

Food bank volunteers are often older.
(Photo by Katherine Emery, The Maine Monitor)

Over the past 20 years, the average age of food pantry volunteers has climbed, leading some volunteers to reduce their hours or stop volunteering due to health issues. Meanwhile, there aren't enough younger volunteers to fill their spots.

In rural states like Maine, where food insecurity is a consistent issue, the "nearly 600 hunger relief agencies that get free and low-cost food from Good Shepherd Food Bank rely on volunteers," reports Elaine Appleton Grant of The Maine Monitor. "This includes 250 food pantries as well as soup kitchens, senior centers, shelters, schools and youth programs."

Food banks thrive with a regularly scheduled staff of volunteers working planned shifts, but many younger generations are more likely to sign up for limited-time commitments. Grant explains, "Younger volunteers are increasingly seeking out what the Minnesota Alliance of Nonprofit Advancement calls 'event-based' volunteering — one-time efforts with no commitment to future shifts."

In many places, it's not that younger people don't want to volunteer, but they're often limited by working so many hours to pay their own bills. Grant writes, "Just 20% of millennials volunteer in Maine, half the rate of Gen Xers and baby boomers." Researcher Quixada Moore-Vissing told Grant, "I would categorize it as being an overwhelmed and overworked society."

Faced with a volunteer shortage in September, Second Harvest Heartland in Minnesota "had to delay the distribution of thousands of pounds of food," Grant reports. "As a result, food pantries in Minnesota and western Wisconsin got the food later than expected."

Trump says funds will be paid to active military members during shutdown

Photo by Sonder Bridge Photography, Unsplash

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that active military members will be paid during the government shutdown, Deepa Shivaram and Luke Garrett reported for NPR.

The funds are expected to come from around $8 billion of “unused research and development funding from last year,” Shivaram and Garrett wrote.

A bill called the “Pay Our Troops Act” also has been introduced in Congress to address growing concerns of military members who are unable to feed their families. No action has been taken on the bill.

“Military families deserve better than to have our livelihoods tied to political stalemates,” Besa Pinchotti, CEO of the National Military Family Association said in a statement.

The current stalemate is largely caused by disagreements on funding for health care policies such as Medicaid. Congress must pass an appropriations bill, which is a bill that would fund the government, to end the shutdown.

Many other federal workers are also facing financial burdens and layoffs due to the shutdown. Members of Congress, however, still receive paychecks, though some have refused to take their pay because they believe it is wrong to do so while the military and other federal workers are not getting paid.

Food banks are already stretched thin, and changes to SNAP benefits are likely to leave some Americans hungry

Food banks have already been impacted by USDA cuts.
(Photo by Aaron Doucett, Unsplash)

With food prices continuing to climb higher than overall inflation, many Americans have turned to food banks to make ends meet. But food pantry organizers say they are already strapped by increasing needs and fear that when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, changes start pinching people's budgets, pantries won't have enough food to meet the demand. 

Food bank shortages are likely to become more common for rural pantries because they rely more heavily on Department of Agriculture programs and have fewer private donors to lean on for assistance.

"Food banks across the country were already straining under rising demand. Now, they worry many more Americans will go hungry," reports Dan Frosch of The Wall Street Journal. "Some food banks and pantries are pushing for more state, local and private funding. Others are considering cutting back services and the amount of food they can distribute."

Food pantry leaders "say the SNAP reductions included in the new budget bill will strain resources by pushing more people whose benefits have either been cut or reduced toward pantries to get food," Frosch reports. "Republicans say changes to the SNAP program will ensure people receiving the benefits are working, as required."

Changes that have already gone into effect significantly shift age and work requirements to receive benefits. The new budget "expands work requirements for SNAP, raising the upper age limit for able-bodied adults from 54 to 64, meaning those people will typically have to work for 80 hours a month to qualify for food benefits," Frosch writes. Individuals caring for children 14-17 will now have to work to qualify for SNAP. 

Just as pandemic-era aid tapered off throughout the U.S., food inflation began to spike, which led to more people relying on food pantries. While most food banks were able to meet their community's needs, they now have to contend with cuts. Frosch explains, "Earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture canceled millions of pounds of shipments to food banks that were part of its emergency food-assistance program for low-income people." 

A USDA spokesperson told the Journal that regular food deliveries had continued, but "food banks say they are already feeling the impacts of federal cuts," Frosch adds. "For Sarah Aragón, the head of programming for Roadrunner Food Bank, New Mexico’s largest charitable food operation, that has meant losing more than seven million pounds of food she had been counting on."

Some pantries are planning to make cuts if needs overwhelm their supply, but others already run out of food sometimes. Aragón, from Roadrunner Food Bank, told Frosch, "When we have to tell people that we have no more left, the look on their faces when they walk away is like, ‘What am I going to do now?' I don’t have an answer.” 

U.S. food bank system is in distress: 'The urgency of this crisis cannot be overstated'

The Food Bank of Northern Nevada delivers fresh food to seniors,
including those in rural communities. (KFF Health photo)

Slapped with funding cuts and spiking demand, food banks are limping forward without a clear idea of how to fill the gaping hole federal resources used to fill. The financial cuts are especially hard on rural food banks that may lack access to food donations from multiple businesses and grocery stores.

"Food bank managers across the country say their supplies have been strained by rising demand since the Covid pandemic-era emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits ended two years ago and steepening food prices," reports Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez of KFF Health News. "Now, they say, demand is compounded by recent cuts in federal funding to food distribution programs that supply staple food items to pantries nationwide."

The deep cuts began in March when the Department of Agriculture lopped off $500 million from the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which purchases food from U.S. farmers and distributes it to food banks across the country. Rodriguez writes, "The program has supplied more than 20% of the distributions by Feeding America, a nonprofit that serves a network of over 200 food banks and 60,000 meal programs."

Additional demand paired with waning resources "is especially problematic for rural communities, where the federal program might cover 50% or more of food supplied to those in need, said Vince Hall, chief government relations officer of Feeding America," Rodriguez explains. The EFAP was a lifeline for rural residents facing food insecurity, but that safety net is gone. Hall told Rodriguez, “The urgency of this crisis cannot be overstated."

Local food banks are also grappling with a second $500 million cut from the USDA Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which aimed to help governments and schools purchase fresh food and produce from local growers.

Reductions to SNAP benefits, such as those currently being considered by lawmakers, could mean some Americans will go hungry. "A proposed budget resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in April would require $1.7 trillion in net funding cuts, and anti-hunger advocates fear SNAP could be a target," Rodriguez reports. "More people living in rural parts of the country rely on SNAP than people in urban areas because of higher poverty rates, so they would be disproportionately affected."

USDA cuts hit schools, farmers and food banks. The lost funding and provisions hurt rural communities the most.

Food bank reductions are tough for rural communities
to replace. (Adobe Stock photo)

In an effort to bring U.S. Department of Agriculture spending back to pre-pandemic times, the USDA terminated more that $1 billion in food support programing. The cuts are likely to leave a path of hungry Americans in their wake.

In early March, the USDA cut more than $1 billion in funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement programs for 2025. "The money was designed to pay farmers to provide food to schools and food banks," reports Jeanine Santucci of USA Today. "The abrupt cancellation of government funding for programs to help food banks distribute healthy, local food is being felt across the country, as some already strapped organizations turn to their local communities for help."

Both programs helped local growers boost their incomes while providing fresh food options to local schools and food banks. 

Food banks were dealt another blow when the USDA announced it was halting or reducing deliveries from part of its Emergency Food Assistance Program. Some of those reductions significantly scaled back food bank funding. Jackie DeFusco of NBC reports, "Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, food pantries and local meal programs, was recently informed that the USDA is canceling $500 million in federal funding as the administration reviews spending decisions made under the Biden administration."

The losses will be especially tough for rural communities to manage "because they depend the most on USDA-funded programs for the food distributed by food banks, said Vince Hall, chief government relations officer of the nonprofit Feeding America," Santucci explains.

According to Hall, the ways food banks receive donations also will contribute to rural regions struggling more than their urban counterparts to fill gaps in USDA funding and provisions. "They include donations from the community itself or from food producers, food purchased through the USDA programs and food purchased by the banks themselves with very limited resources," Santucci reports. "With the loss of a significant amount of federal funding for food purchases, they'll have to lean heavily on donations, which are harder to come by in spread-out, rural areas, he said."

Food inflation has made it difficult for many Americans to return to life without some type of assistance. Hall told Santucci, "Folks who came to us during the pandemic have found it impossible to ease out of dependency on food banks because inflation has made so many of their monthly budget essentials more expensive than ever."

Opinion: No American should go hungry. Supporting food banks and policy changes are part of the solution.

The U.S. exported 2.26 billion bushels of soybeans
in 2022. (Adobe Stock photo)

The United States is a top global producer of corn, wheat, soybeans, sugarcane, potatoes and rice. In terms of exports, it exceeds all other countries by trading more than 20% of what it grows. With all the food grown and exported, why do so many Americans live with food insecurity? They shouldn't, writes The New York Times editorial board.

One measure of how many Americans go hungry is the number of meals served by Feeding America in 2023: an astonishing 5.3 billion. "In a country of more than 330 million people, it is evidence of how widespread and persistent food insecurity remains," they write. "Food insecurity is defined by the Department of Agriculture as the lack of access to enough food for an active and healthy life. . . . In some of the poorest regions of America, mostly rural areas in the South, food insecurity among children is as high as 48%. But it is present in every county in the country."

Even as local, state and federal governments work to address how to feed everyone adequately, "Feeding America, a network of roughly 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, is filling the void every day for tens of millions of Americans," they write. "Feeding America needs help to continue this essential frontline work. The average cost of a single meal may be only $3.99, but when that is multiplied by the millions of meals required, it adds up to $33 billion that families need and don’t have for groceries."

Hunger is more prevalent in minority communities. The editorial board reports, "Roughly one-quarter of Black Americans experience food insecurity, as compared with 10 percent of white non-Hispanic Americans, according to a report by Feeding America. In some parts of the rural American South, roughly two-thirds of Black people are experiencing food insecurity."

Meanwhile, U.S. policy changes could address ongoing food insecurity by allowing more Americans to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The editorial board adds, "Most families of four that receive SNAP benefits have incomes below $40,560. Feeding America estimates that that leaves around 20 million people in a no man’s land, where they can neither afford sufficient food nor qualify for help to pay for it."

Quick hits: Calamity-predicting maps; rural areas grow; check out this freezer; are there ghosts in your kitchen?

First Street aims to predict natural calamities.
(First Street aerial photo)

As home insurance rates continue to spike upward, many insurers, home buyers and owners want more accurate, detailed information on how likely a climate catastrophe is in their region. The climate and tech non-profit First Street is "building up-to-date flood maps to estimate what could happen to homes and businesses in an era of rising sea levels and more frequent, stronger storms," reports Leslie Kaufman of Bloomberg News. The company uses advanced climate science and engineering to identify the risk for every property in the country.

As some Americans choose to leave urban hubs, rural America is growing. "In 2020–21 and 2021–22, rural areas experienced an increase in population because more people moved from urban to rural areas than in the opposite direction, a reversal of domestic migration trends from the previous decade," reports the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. "Net domestic migration in rural areas jumped from near zero in 2019–20 to more than 0.35 percent in the last two years."

Wilkinson's book celebrates the magical connection
between food and family. (Courtesy photo via UKN)

Family food traditions and recipes are often seen and shared as treasures. Crystal Wilkinson, a Kentucky author and poet, sees her cooking as a path to channeling with her Black Appalachian ancestors, report Lindsey Piercy and Kody Kiser for the University of Kentucky News. "Raised by her grandparents in the hollers of Indian Creek, Kentucky, Wilkinson vividly remembers the dishes that were commonplace in her childhood." Wilkinson calls on cooking memories as a way to reconnect with those she has lost. Her new book is Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts.

A farm's value can be based primarily on the land, but what happens to land values when the property is used for solar? In his commentary for Farm Progress, Michael Lauher reviews two land sales for a look at the outcomes. "Professional farm managers have fielded questions about how a solar lease might affect farmland values — or even the option to lease. . . Two sales do not make a trend. But we can make interesting observations from them." Read his thoughts and advice here.

In 2023, Oreo cookie lovers accused its maker of putting less creamy filling in their beloved cookies. The snack maker denied the allegations. Scripps News reports a new cookie conflict: Chips Ahoy! is boldly changing its cookie recipes. Foodmaker Mondelēz International said different chocolate chips will be in the mix along with a higher-concentrate Madagascar vanilla extract. "An official for Chips Ahoy! said developers spent more than 5,000 hours in the kitchen and tested more than 60 recipes before getting the desired result."

A food pantry in rural Nebraska has a new hunger-fighting kitchen appliance -- a freezer that can hold an entire truckload of meat. "Simon House, a Columbus-based thrift store and food pantry, installed a walk-in freezer, with a capacity to store a truckload of frozen meat," reports Tim Trudell of the Columbus Telegram. It's the "first such freezer in rural America . . . . thousands of people can enjoy protein as part of their meals, said Lucy Lutjelusche, Simon House store manager and director."

Volunteers in W. Ky. county see homelessness up close as they try to help, and their weekly newspaper reports on it

Trash litters the area surrounding a homeless encampment near
near Drakesboro, Kentucky (Photo by Stacie Barton, Leader-News)

Rolling hills dotted with striking bald cypresses and homelessness. In Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, that's what food-pantry workers encountered on their stop in Drakesboro, reports Stacie Barton of the Leader-News, a local weekly. "Up on a hill overlooking U.S. Highway 431, two people in their mid-40s are living in a badly worn tent. The tent is missing its poles and was laying almost flat on the couple as they emerged to greet Scott Casebier and Debra Gorham, volunteers from Hope2All Food Pantry. They were delivering food and checking in to see if they could help in any way."

There are many reasons homelessness happens, "Mary has been on disability since childhood, but at some point fell out of the system. Scotty seemed unwilling to relive the series of events that landed him here. The two have no income at all," Barton writes. "There is a low cinderblock building people at the food pantry call the 'chicken houses.' It has been divided into three units, which are rented out to people as a place to live. . . .The chicken houses are reported to have no running water, no toilets, and only one unit has electricity. . . . Mary had lived in the chicken houses but was unable to pay the $300 in rent to stay there, so she has been living outdoors for about six months."

Barton reports, "A 16-year-old boy lives at the Central Motel in Central City with his mother, aunt and adult cousin. The four of them live in one room with only one bed. Brayden is in high school and works a job to provide for his family. . . . Brayden catches the school bus around the corner. He's lived at the motel for around five months. . . . At the other end of the motel, a young family of five is living in a room with two queen beds. There are little tricycles and a bike with training wheels sitting outside the door, and the room is tidy. Brianna is doing her best. . . . Her husband has a job at a nearby coal mine. . . . His income makes them ineligible for food stamps, Brianna said."

Casebier travels from Drakesboro to Powderly along his pantry delivery route, "There are camp trailers, storage sheds, and homes with boarded up windows," Barton writes. "Casebier said working at the pantry has shed a light on people living in precarious places around the community." He told Barton, "Being a pastor, down through the years, we help people through our churches and know it exists. But not until I got with Hope2All did I realize the needs." Barton reports, "The food pantry sends roughly 800 boxes of food home with Muhlenberg County residents each month, which are meant to feed a household. Each week, the pantry sees 20-30 new families who qualify for food assistance come through the line, which snakes around the block. Dozens more are delivered to people without transportation."

Casebier told Barton, “We have people who come to our food pantry that live like the rest of us, but then something happens." Barton writes, "Casebier wraps up his visit with Scotty and Mary by asking them if they need anything. He’ll purchase a new tent and air mattress for them, and offers to put them up in a motel for a night or two. Mary declines the offer. She said it might sound funny, but she’s gotten used to living outdoors."

End of pandemic means end of extra food benefits in most states; a look at one that already did it shows struggles

The poor wait for free food in Hazel Green, Kentucky.
(Photo by Reshma Kirpalani, The Washington Post)

"In the richest country in the world, some 25 million households — including 12 million households with children under the age of 18 — reported that they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat, according to recent Census Bureau data," reports Arohi Pathak of the Center for American Progress, a progressive policy institute.

Why would so many people go hungry? The answer is simple: Some people don't have enough money for food, and the problem is getting worse, with inflation. It is about to get worse at the end of this month, with the end of extra food benefits for 41 million Americans. To illustrate what will happen, Tim Craig of The Washington Post went to one of the 18 states that have ended their emergencies and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allotments in the past year."

Craig met Kenny Blair and his wife in Hazel Green, Kentucky, a small town in the Appalachian foothills. He reports, "Blair and his wife hop into their truck twice a month at 4 a.m. to ensure they get a few staples at the Hazel Green Food Project’s giveaway. On a recent Friday, they waited nine hours until local prisoners on work duty started loading bags of meat and vegetables, potato chips and cookies into vehicles in one of the nation’s most impoverished communities. . . . With Kentucky serving as a warning beacon, social services agencies and charities across the country are now preparing for a summer of misery as food prices continue to soar due to inflation."

The newspaper in Norton, Virginia, alerted its readers this week.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, which includes about 3,600 charities, told Craig, “We are bracing, and our agencies, member food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens are not prepared for what is about to hit them. This reduction, and end of the public-health emergency, could not be coming at a worse time.”

Not every state is completely severing benefits. "Political leaders in some states are considering ways to soften the impact of SNAP benefit reductions. . . . Last month, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation guaranteeing a minimum $95 per month SNAP benefit, the first state to do so, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Coughlin told Craig, "I believe, that it is closer to a moral obligation than a government function to make sure the people are fed. In every town, in every state, even in affluent communities, there is somebody who is hungry.”

SNAP benefits will end in 32 states; food pantries aim to fill the gap; it may not be possible to meet the demand

Photo by Erin Schaff, The New York Times

Across 32 states, emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will end in March. The drop in assistance has local food pantries gearing up to feed more families and hoping they will have enough. "Food bank managers fear that demand will spike further in March, when officials roll back pandemic-era increases to SNAP benefits," reports Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez of Kaiser Health News. "The program, administered by the Department of Agriculture, provides monthly stipends to people with low incomes to spend on food. Before 2020, those payments averaged a little more than $200 and were hiked by a minimum of $95 during the pandemic."

"Friends in Service Helping food pantry is known in rural northeastern Nevada as FISH," writes Rodriguez. "The food pantry is one of a few in this city of about 20,000 people. In January, FISH provided food boxes to nearly 790 people. . . Officials estimate FISH families will see a 30% to 40% decrease in SNAP payments as emergency allotments tied to the public health emergency halt in 32 states, including Nevada." Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Kentucky, and South Dakota, have already ended the emergency allotments.

Andrew Cheyne, managing director of public policy for GRACE, a nonprofit run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, focused on reducing childhood hunger, told Rodriguez, "We have so many households who simply aren’t going to know that this is happening. They’re going to go to the grocery store and expect to have money in their account and not be able to buy the food they need to feed their families. . . .There’s just no comparing the scale of SNAP to the charitable food sector. It’s simply not possible to make up that difference.”

Rodriquez reports, "In Montana, the expanded SNAP benefits were cut in summer 2021. Brent Weisgram, vice president and chief operating officer of the Montana Food Bank Network, said that reporting from the network’s partners shows a 24% increase in the number of households seeking assistance from emergency food pantries from July 2021 to July 2022. Weisgram said food pantries are not prepared to absorb the impact of the cut to the largest federal nutrition assistance program and are strictly a supplemental resource."

Tammy King, a volunteer at FISH, told Rodriquez, “I feel that everybody who has the power to help is doing everything they can to help us. You just gotta look at your food and say, ‘OK, how long can I make this last and make a difference in someone’s life?’”

Farm Bureau backs farm-program boost, alliance with food advocates to pass Farm Bill as GOP plans non-defense cuts

The nation's largest organization of farmers and ranchers wants the new Farm Bill to expand funding for federal agriculture programs but that "may run into a roadblock in the House of Representatives," where Republicans in a new but thin majority "are calling for cutting up to 25% of spending in federal non-defense agencies," Chris Clayton reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

American Farm Bureau Federation convention delegates in Puerto Rico "voted Tuesday to expand baseline funding for the Farm Bill and ask Congress to develop more flexible disaster-relief programs," Clayton notes. Most Farm Bill money funds nutrtion programs run by the Department of Agriculture, by far the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps. An alliance of farm and nutrition advocates has been key to passing farm and food programs, and delegates' voters confirmed that the lobbying interests "should stick together to get a Farm Bill passed," Clayton reports: Delegates "approved new policy to support access to nutrition programs including connecting farms directly with food banks, increasing the number of SNAP-approved food sales outlets, and other efforts to make produce available to families living in food deserts."

There will be less presure to get a five-year Farm Bill passed by Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year, than in past cases, because the current law lets nutrition and crop-insurance programs continue, DTN Political Correspondent Jerry Hagstrom reports.

On other issues, the delegates "also want to see more crop insurance options for specialty crops" and "more transparency" in the federal milk-pricing system," a Farm Bureau press release said. "Changes they would like to see in milk programs include more USDA audits of processing costs to ensure data remains accurate," Clayton reports. "Farm Bureau would also like to see the Federal Milk Marketing Orders voting procedure changed that would require 'cooperatives to communicate more clearly with members regarding proposed changes'."

Whom does Farm Bureau represent? AFBF said a poll of the 334 delegates found that 99% of those who cast votes "operate family farms and almost 65% represent small- to mid-size farms as defined by USDA," Clayton reports.

More Americans are going hungry than last summer, due to inflation, but 16 states have ended pandemic food-aid boost

States in gray opted out. (Stateline map; click to enlarge.)

More Americans are going hungry than last summer because of soaring food prices, but at least 16 states are refusing extra federal money meant to help the hungry, who are disproportionately rural.

This July, food costs rose an average of 10.9 percent from the previous July, the biggest single-year jump since 1979, Molly Smith reports for Bloomberg. Eggs and grain-based foods saw some of the biggest increases, owing to the recent avian-flu epidemic that took out millions of laying hens and the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has stalled grain shipments. Overall food prices rose 1.14% from June to July, the highest month-over-month increase since April 2020.

In July, more than 15 million Americans sometimes went hungry because they couldn't afford food, and nearly 6 million often did, according to the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey. In July 2021, nearly 12 million sometimes went hungry because they couldn't afford food and 3.6 million often did.

"Those numbers would have been higher if millions of families hadn’t received extra food aid through a pandemic-related expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps," Kristian Hernández reports for Stateline. "At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic . . . Congress temporarily increased SNAP benefits by raising all benefits by 15% and boosting every household to the maximum benefit allowed for its household size. In April 2021, the Biden administration bumped up the extra aid to a minimum of $95 for all households."

The 15% increase expired last September, but the maximum-benefit boost will continue as long as a state is still in a state of emergency or disaster due to the pandemic. "As of mid-July, 30 states had ended or allowed their health emergency orders to expire, but 18 of those states continued to qualify for emergency SNAP benefits because they are citing disaster declarations. According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency website, every state has at least one active disaster declaration due to Covid-19," Hernández reports. "But at least 16 states now have opted out of providing the emergency allotments, with Republican leaders in some of those states arguing that the extra food aid and other pandemic-related help are contributing to worker shortages across the country."

Three-quarters of households getting SNAP benefits had at least one adult working in 2018, the most recent data available, "and some researchers have long argued that while Medicaid and other welfare programs might include disincentives to work, SNAP does not," Hernández reports, adding that even with the recent increases in benefits, recipients in over 20% of counties still couldn't afford three modest meals a day last fall—and that was before inflation sent food prices skyrocketing.

Georgia cut off the extra benefits in June; a spokesperson for Gov. Brian Kemp said Georgians don't need it because of the strong economy and low unemployment rate. "But food banks across Georgia say they have seen an increase in clients since the emergency benefits were cut off," Hernández reports. "Danah Craft, executive director of Feeding Georgia, a network of food banks across the state, said food banks are so overwhelmed they are no longer able to feed people with their usual donations, forcing them to buy food instead." The CEO of another Georgia food bank nonprofit — one which serves mostly rural counties — said households reported getting an extra $89 per month in emergency benefits, but it's not helping much because of higher food prices, Hernández reports.

"I think some of these benefits are ending because there is an assumption that as we're emerging from the pandemic, that things have returned to normal," Craft told Hernández. "But the reality is that people are faring worse than they did pre-Covid."

War in Ukraine threatens worldwide food shortage, rise in social and political upheaval; millions more could go hungry

"The war in Ukraine has delivered a shock to global energy markets. Now the planet is facing a deeper crisis: a shortage of food," reports Jack Nicas of The New York Times. The greatest upheaval since World War II "is compounded by major challenges that were already increasing prices and squeezing supplies, including the pandemic, shipping constraints, high energy costs and recent droughts, floods and fires," That could bring more global hunger and social/political upheaval.

"A crucial portion of the world’s wheat, corn and barley is trapped in Russia and Ukraine because of the war, while an even larger portion of the world’s fertilizers is stuck in Russia and Belarus," Nicas reports. "The result is that global food and fertilizer prices are soaring. Since the invasion last month, wheat prices have increased by 21 percent, barley by 33% and some fertilizers by 40%. Ukrainian farms are about to miss critical planting and harvesting seasons. European fertilizer plants are significantly cutting production because of high energy prices. Farmers from Brazil to Texas are cutting back on fertilizer, threatening the size of the next harvests."

The smaller supply of basic commodities will push grocery bills up even higher, and could push food-insecure people over the edge to outright hunger, Nicas writes. In the U.S., where grocery prices were up 8.6% in February over the year before and most pandemic assistance programs have ended, more and more Americans are turning to food banks, Laura Reiley reports for The Washington Post.

"Food-bank officials are reporting growing lines at their distribution centers nationwide. Rates of reported hunger have been increasing since early August, when nearly 8% of respondents said they 'sometimes' or 'often' did not have enough to eat, according to data from the Census Household Pulse Survey," Reiley reports. "In early February, 10% of those polled said their household sometimes doesn’t have enough to eat. That uptick is more significant for households with children, rising to 13%, although off from pandemic peaks." Also in February, 35% of U.S. adults in households with children said they struggled to cover their bills. (On Friday, the U.S. Conference of Mayors pleaded with Congress to extend federal pandemic food aid, currently set to expire in July.)

Worldwide, "After remaining mostly flat for five years, hunger rose by about 18% during the pandemic to between 720 million and 811 million people. Earlier this month, the United Nations said that the war’s impact on the global food market alone could cause an additional 7.6 million to 13.1 million people to go hungry," Nicas reports. "The World Food Program’s costs have already increased by $71 million a month, enough to cut daily rations for 3.8 million people."

If the war ended very soon, Ukraine's agricultural exports would still likely fall by a fifth from 2021, Alistair MacDonald reports for The Wall Street Journal. Damaged land, equipment and infrastructure, along with a scattered populace, will make it difficult for farmers to get back to work right away. But that's the best-case scenario, a Ukrainian agriculture official told MacDonald; the reality will probably be far worse.

Minority communities saw more hunger during pandemic

Percentage of food-insecure households by race and ethnicity
in 2020 and 2019 (Investigate Midwest chart)

"The Covid-19 pandemic was expected to drive many families into hunger as jobs were lost and supply chains were interrupted. The prediction held true, but mostly for minorities," reports The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. "The nation's overall food insecurity rate remained the same between 2019 and 2020, but Black and Hispanic households fared the worst, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data released last month. Fewer white households' struggled with food insecurity last year than the year before. Experts attributed the steady rate to government programs, such as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program (P-EBT), intended to fight hunger. However, some of these programs are slated to end next year, which has advocates worried about what could happen to families struggling to access food."

Minority households likely fared worse because of existing disparities at the beginning of the pandemic, such as a lower median income and higher poverty rate than other groups. Other groups more likely to suffer from food insecurity include seniors, people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, and families with children, the Midwest Center reports.

Hunger is also disproportionately rural, previous data show. And though federal aid helped overall rural hunger go down in 2020, more children went hungry, more people used food banks, and overall food insecurity rose in nine states.

Because of federal pandemic aid, overall U.S. poverty fell in 2020, especially among children and rural residents

Census Bureau chart; click the image to enlarge it.

Thanks to direct federal aid prompted by the pandemic, overall poverty in the U.S. declined from 2019 to 2020 among every age group, racial and ethnic group, and educational level, according to the latest Census Bureau figures.

Rural poverty fell a full percentage point further than urban poverty, and rural incomes fell less, but one in seven rural Americans were still living in poverty when the census was taken last April, Chuck Abbott reports for the The Food & Environment Reporting Network.

Federal pandemic aid "is widely credited by economists and policy experts for preventing another Great Depression," Heather Long and Amy Goldstein report for The Washington Post. "The stimulus payments provided $1,200 cash payments to most low-income and middle-class Americans last year, moving 11.7 million people out of poverty, the Census [Bureau] said. Another 5.5 million people were prevented from falling into poverty by the enhanced unemployment insurance aid."

From 2019 to 2020, rural poverty rates fell 3.3 percentage points, from 11.6% to 8.3%, while urban rates fell 2.5 percentage points, from 11.8% to 9.3%, according to a supplemental report. During the same time period, median household income fell 2.1 percentage points to $51,616 in rural areas, while in urban areas it fell 2.6 percentage points to $70,956.

Poverty among children was substantially reduced, thanks to direct aid and the newly expanded child tax credit, part of a pandemic aid package, The Economist notes. But though poverty was down, hunger was up in nine states, more people used food banks and emergency kitchens, and more children went hungry last year than in 2019, according to a recent Agriculture Department report.

"The official poverty rate rose slightly in 2020 to 11.4 percent, up from a record low 10.5 percent in 2019, but that figure leaves out much of the government aid," Long and Goldstein report. "After accounting for all the federal relief payments, the so-called supplemental poverty measure declined to 9.1 percent in 2020 — the lowest on record and a significant decline from 11.8 percent in 2019."

Rural food banks find a way to deliver as hunger hits pandemic high in the US; Biden increases some food aid

For millions of low-income people living in rural areas around the country, getting to a grocery store or a food bank can be a major barrier to getting enough to eat," Samantha Fields reports for Marketplace. The coronavirus pandemic has compounded that problem, and food banks and pantries realized early on that they had to figure out ways to bring food to people, even though home delivery can be a logistical challenge in rural areas.

But, though hunger is up, private donations of food and money are generally up too, especially with fresh produce from farmers. The president of one rural food bank in Maine said the increased produce and the shift to home delivery are changes she hopes will stick around after the pandemic, Fields reports.

Though the relief package in December allotted $400 million to supply food banks, billions of dollars in food aid expired at the end of the year, meaning more people will need food banks. "The country’s largest network of food banks is bracing for a 50 percent reduction in food received from the government this year, even as demand soars," according to a multimedia story from The Washington Post that illustrates the problem of hunger during the pandemic.

Nearly 30 million adults reported they sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the last week, according to the latest Census Bureau data from Dec. 17, the Post reports. That number encompasses 14% of households overall and 18% of households with children. That's the highest number reported during the pandemic.

President Biden announced Friday a 15% increase in food aid payments for low-income families with children through the Pandemic-EBT program. P-EBT "was created last spring to help replace the subsidized or free meals that tens of millions of children normally get at school," Helena Bottemiller Evich reports for Politico. The program gives households benefits on a debit-like card that can only be used to buy groceries." 

However, payments under the program have been repeatedly delayed, and the "vast majority" of households hadn't received any P-EBT payments as of last month, even though the funds had been authorized in September. "Many states have not even sent USDA their plans for approval, which means the aid will be even further delayed," Evich reports. "It's not clear whether the increase will be applied to the many months of benefits that are owed to most families that are eligible."

Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it will work with the Justice Department to see whether it can increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments to the nearly 40% of recipient households that have seen no real increase in such benefits during the pandemic, Evich reports. The USDA is also working on updating the criteria used to determine SNAP payment levels, a task the 2018 Farm Bill directed the department to complete by 2022. A department spokesperson said the current criteria are "out of date with the economic realities most struggling households face when trying to buy and prepare healthy food," Evich reports.

Hunger in U.S., which is disproportionately rural, at highest point since 1998, first year comparable data available

According to a Washington Post analysis of new federal data, "more Americans are going hungry now than at any point during the deadly coronavirus pandemic . . . a problem created by an economic downturn that has tightened its grip on millions of Americans and compounded by government relief programs that expired or will terminate at the end of the year," the Post reports in a story rich with graphics and maps. "Experts say it is likely that there’s more hunger in the United States today than at any point since 1998, when the Census Bureau began collecting comparable data about households’ ability to get enough food."

Nearly 26 million adults, or one in eight, said they sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past week. That figure rose to one in six adults among households with children, the Post reports. The pandemic, and the government's uneven response to it, has driven the nationwide spike in hunger, according to Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty Executive Director Jeremy K. Everett.

"Hunger rates spiked nationwide after shutdowns in late March closed large chunks of the U.S. economy," the Post reports. "The situation improved somewhat as businesses reopened and the benefits from a $2.2 trillion federal pandemic aid package flowed into people’s pockets, with beefed-up unemployment benefits, support for food programs and incentives for companies to keep workers on the payroll, But those effects were short-lived. The bulk of the federal aid had faded by September, and more than 12 million workers stand to lose unemployment benefits before year’s end if Congress doesn’t extend key programs."

Though the Post story focuses on Houston, rural Americans often face hunger and food insecurity at higher rates than the overall population, according to recent research from Feeding America. The research highlights several reasons for the disparity: rural areas are more likely to be in food deserts, job openings tend to be low-wage, and there are higher rates of unemployment and underemployment. Rural hunger was declining in 2019, but the pandemic spurred a turnaround. 

"Congress left for its Thanksgiving break without making any progress on a new pandemic aid deal even as food banks across the country report a crush of demand heading into the holidays," the Post reports. That goes especially for rural food banks, Kyle Swenson reports for the Post.

A Thanksgiving roundup: Climate change threatens cranberry industry; what Poynter is thankful for

Here's a cornucopia of Thanksgiving-related stories:

Poynter Institute writers list some of what they're thankful for in journalism this year. Read more here.

Climate change is threatening the cranberry industry. Read more here.

Regenerative turkey production, which helps soil health, is increasingly popular. Read more here.

For many Native Americans, especially during the pandemic, Thanksgiving can be a complicated holiday. Read more here.

Food banks have seen higher demand than usual before Thanksgiving. Read more here.