Recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP will see their benefits jump 21% today in the largest increase since the program began in 1975.
The change, a Biden administration revision to the Thrifty Food Program, raises the average benefit, excluding pandemic relief funds, by $36.24 per person per month. For a family of four in New York, the maximum allotment will increase from $680 to $835, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.
“This is a really historic event and something that a lot of anti-hunger and food security advocates have been pushing for a long time,” said Eliza Kinsey, a research scientist at Columbia University’s department of epidemiology. “It’s a really important and a very needed and long overdue increase to SNAP-benefit levels.”
In New York, eligibility for SNAP — formerly known as food stamps — depends on factors like a household’s gross income, family size and whether an applicant falls below an income threshold. Specific income guidelines can be found on the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance website.
Community District 12, which includes Washington Heights and Inwood, had 33,217 SNAP households in June, the most of any Manhattan district and the third highest in the city, data from a borough/community district report shows.
Kinsey said rates of food insecurity rose “dramatically” during the pandemic, significantly impacting people of color and households with children. “It’s going to take a long time for us to recover,” she said.
Recipients can spend their benefits at stores and farmers markets like those operated by GrowNYC, which sell locally grown produce and accept payments like SNAP, electronic benefit transfer (EBT), and pandemic electronic benefit transfer (P-EBT).
At a greenmarket, customers can withdraw SNAP funds from their EBT cards in exchange for $1 and $5 wooden tokens. At the end of the day, sellers are reimbursed for the tokens they collect.
“We’re kind of like the ATM for the farmers market,” said Andrei Kozlov, GrowNYC’s food access initiative coordinator.
The organization made $47,158 in SNAP-related sales in August at its Washington Heights and Inwood markets, Kozlov said. That is more than double the $22,276 the group made in SNAP revenue in August 2020.
“Part of that was due to previous increases in SNAP allotment as part of pandemic-related funds, as well as an increased number of New Yorkers who enrolled in SNAP,” Kozlov said.
The increase in SNAP benefits is a “wonderful idea,” Inwood resident Taty Kam, 34, said as she shopped at the greenmarket on Isham Street in Inwood. “Honestly, I never felt like it was enough. But you know, anything additional right now is very beneficial.”
Kam, a stay-at-home mother, said she also hopes the increase will ease her stress, allow her to focus more on family, instead of “worrying about, ‘Do I have enough food?’”
Another Inwood resident, Danurys Sanchez, 48, stopped by the greenmarket along Fort Washington Avenue on a break from her job as a senior research staff associate at Columbia University. While she believes the increase is not enough, a conversation with her mother, who is 71 and also a SNAP beneficiary, persuaded her otherwise.
“She thought it was the end of the world like, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna get an additional’ amount,” Sanchez said. “She thought it was enough.”
During the pandemic, Sanchez received food benefits to replace her children’s school lunch. She supported the option because it gave her children a healthier and more enjoyable meal.
“This should be something that should be an option for families with kids,” Sanchez said. “We already don’t do the school lunch because it sucks. So why don’t we get that money back in a way that we can actually utilize it better.”
Ted Recitas, 48, a fitness professional living in Washington Heights, said the SNAP increase will help families in his situation. During the pandemic, he, his wife and his brother, who share a home, all contracted COVID-19. He still reels from the loss of income.
“My private business just basically took a hammering,” Recitas said. He lost “like 90-95% of it. So, you know, SNAP benefits definitely help.”
Richard Nolasco, a supervisor who sells organic produce for Nolasco Farms in New Jersey, said the increased SNAP benefits will not lead to higher prices at his family-owned business. “Maybe it gives them an opportunity to try something different,” he said.
Note: This story was produced for The Uptowner, a student publication at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
