The Trump administration has come in for some strong criticism recently for its “modest” feeding programs as hunger “spreads across a locked-down nation,” the New York Times is reporting, It says that the administration “has balked at the simplest ways to feed the hardest hit.”
For example, it says USDA is focusing on giving states more flexibility to feed their citizens through regulatory waivers, many of which expire at the end of the month. And, it cites the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution that says that “since the beginning of the pandemic, rates of household food insecurity have doubled and the rates of childhood food insecurity have quadrupled.”
USDA notes that it has given states more administrative power over the agency’s 15 nutrition assistance programs, which cover children, women and infants, and adults. It also says it plans to send more than 5 million food boxes a week to children living in rural areas.
However, “the waivers, especially, are modest” the Times says. One allows school meals to be served outside of crowded settings; another allows meals to be distributed without some education activity. The department has allowed 24 states to receive additional assistance through an electronic transfer of benefits that accounts for the value of free and reduced-price meals that their children no longer receive because of school closures.
And families in 23 states can use benefits from the supplemental nutrition assistance program to purchase groceries online. Other waivers have allowed states to issue emergency allotments that increase SNAP benefits to the monthly maximum for all beneficiaries. That has expanded food assistance for some working poor families but did not help the poorest, who already get the maximum benefit.
The department also says it will send $16 billion to farmers and will purchase $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy, and meat for food banks, community and faith-based organizations, and other nonprofit organizations.
At the same time, USDA attracted attention of critics by filing a notice that it would appeal a court ruling that blocked stricter work requirements for food stamps that were to take effect in April, stripping nearly 700,000 people from the food stamp rolls. Opponents of the rule were incredulous, the Times said.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has asked state officials in Louisiana and Alabama, where school meal sites have shut down, to look at whether those closures have a disproportionate impact on low-income and African-American students and schools that continue to operate their meals programs are struggling to feed adults, NYT says. Under current rules, the federal government does not reimburse meals served to adults unless they are disabled and receiving care from the school. In April, the California Department of Education asked USDA to waive that rule, but the administration said it lacked the authority to do so.
As poverty rises, states are facing a crush of applicants for SNAP. Congress and a federal court have waived most SNAP work requirements during the emergency. Still, higher education students, sent home by their colleges and universities, still must find jobs to qualify for SNAP.
In addition, many adults are turning to food banks, NYT says. Congress has provided additional funding for them through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which many food banks rely on. However, this program has yet to receive the additional funds and officials worry that they will not be able to store perishable goods from the new program of prepackaged food boxes.
USDA has obligated just $99 million of the $850 million that Congress appropriated for the Emergency Food Program, Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, said.
FEMA, the agency tasked with supplying emergency meal kits or funding food distribution programs after disasters, has also forecast food shortages. In April, the agency outlined how it would support meal distribution through its public assistance program, which covers 75% of the costs.
Peter Gaynor, the administrator of FEMA, said this month that states were already asking the for assistance. “It’s not widespread but we see pockets of it,” he said. The federal funding for food distribution is “a tool that is made available to everyone, everyone that’s in a disaster.”
Earlier this month, FEMA announced $200 million in supplemental funding from the coronavirus stabilization law for grants through its Emergency Food and Shelter Program. It said a total of $320 million will be distributed beginning in early June to help address hunger and homelessness. Democrats want FEMA to increase its share of the cost and Senators Pat Leahy, D-Vt., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., pointed out that just $5.8 billion of the $79 billion available in the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund has been obligated.
So, we will see. The administration is deeply stressed over its enormous anti-coronavirus efforts and the stresses on efforts to deal with increasing hunger certainly will continue to attract attention along with charges of inequitable support. These are debates producers should watch closely as they proceed, Washington Insider believes.
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