The pandemic has served as a metaphorical earthquake that has stress tested the United States’ social safety net, especially federal anti-hunger programs.
Some of the most startling and grim images from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic were the miles-long lines outside of food banks as the economic toll of the crisis began to spread across the country. As schools closed down and businesses were shuttered, unemployment rates spiked to levels even higher than those during the Great Recession—and many families who had never struggled to put food on the table found themselves in desperate need of help.
In August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to calculate monthly SNAP benefits, will get a long-overdue update to better reflect the cost of a nutritious diet. Yet, millions of eligible households each year do not apply for benefits and research suggests that administrative burdens and barriers to applying for benefits account for those gaps in participation.
