In 2020, Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to provide economic relief to families negatively affected by the pandemic. Nearly three years later, Congress is ending some of that relief, including emergency payments to households using SNAP benefits to pay for groceries.
According to Hamilton County Job & Family Services, 52,489 households in the county rely on SNAP benefits to pay for food. Forty-four percent of all the money from SNAP allocations in the county comes from emergency relief payments that started years ago, meaning many local families will be losing a big chunk of their grocery budget once payments end in March.
The decision to cut these extra benefits was made at the federal level, and commission President Alicia Reece says cutting these extra funds was a mistake that comes at the wrong time.
"The reason it happened in the first place was because of the state of emergency of COVID and how it affected people economically," Reece said. "Unfortunately, the sting of COVID continues because now we have inflation."
To combat the loss of SNAP benefits, Reece says the county is working on solutions to widen access to local food and economic services and provide additional funding to food banks.
This will include an event at Corinthian Baptist Church on Thursday, Jan. 26, featuring the Job & Family Services and the county's 513 Relief Bus, where information on how to access local services will be provided.
Reece also says the board of commissioners is looking into ways to use the county's leftover money from the American Rescue Plan to direct funds to local food banks.
Hamilton County Job & Family Services Director Michael Patton says this federal legislation will have a ripple effect that could have negative consequences outside a lack of food, resulting in the need for additional funding for other agencies like mental health and drug addiction services.
"It's going to be a strain on families in general, so I think it's really important that we're meeting today to walk through with our county partners with the implications of what they believe will happen as a result of this change happening in March," Patton said.
Households using SNAP benefits will receive their last federal emergency relief payment at the end of February.
