‘Every little bit helps’
Increase in SNAP benefits will aid Macomb families
Michele Manus credits her son with the family’s decision to eat healthier. After joining the varsity football team, the high school junior told his mother and sister they needed to eat more chicken and vegetables and cut back on carbs.
“‘We can still cheat sometimes,'” he said. “‘But let's make our diet more about what is needed to keep our bodies going,'” Manus said, repeating the words of her child.
What made the decision possible were the increases in food aid during the pandemic.
“That's when dealing with poverty finally hit the table,” Manus said.
There are 1.25 million Michiganders, of which over 500,000 are children, receiving $282 million in food benefits monthly as the pandemic's economic fallout continues to significantly impact families across the state.
These benefits provide a safety net during crisis situations like the Great Recession when the number of recipients in Macomb County rose from 76,000 in 2008 to 128,000 by 2010. Before the pandemic there were 88,000 receiving support to cover their grocery bills. Now there are more than 100,000 in the program.
But while the cost of living has gone up the amount of help has remained the same — until now.
President Joe Biden's administration recently approved a significant and permanent increase in the levels of food assistance available to needy families. It is the largest single increase in the history of the Supplemental Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly known as Food Stamp Program.
Beginning in October, the average SNAP benefit — excluding additional funds provided as part of the pandemic relief — will
increase by $36.24 per person, per month, or $1.19 a day.
“It’s been long overdue for an update,” said Ernest Cawvey, director of Macomb Community Action. “It’s been 15 years since it was last increased. The costs of food has gone up, housing, daycare, it’s all gone up so it’s important that we update our benefits to coincide with the cost of living.”
The $36 doesn’t seem like a lot.
“But every little bit helps when you’re struggling to get by,” Cawvey said.
Manus concurred.
“The beauty of the SNAP increases is we’ve been able to make healthier choices,” Manus said.
Bread was $1.99 per loaf and now it’s $2.59.
Grapes were $1.99 per pound and now they’re $3.99
Before the increase, if she purchased grapes, wheat breads, rice cakes, oatmeal, energy bars and too many other healthy snacks, which are always higher, at the end of the month she would be left with ramen noodles and tuna fish.
“The SNAP increases help to cover the rising costs and it enables me to take care of other expenses like our rent and utilities,” Manus said. “I just paid $188 so my lights won’t be shut off. Thanks to SNAP I’m able to make ends meet.”
The additional help is coming Oct. 1. Michigan is expected to receive an additional $539 million in annual SNAP benefits, from $1.97 billion to $2.51 billion. The permanent SNAP increases coincide with the September expiration of a 15% boost that was ordered as a pandemic protection measure back in December of 2020 that will have provided an estimated $3.5 billion to U.S. households.
Those who will benefit from the increases range from individuals on disability and seniors on fixed incomes to individuals and families in crisis situation like Manus, who had to leave her bar job during the pandemic but now works for Shipt, as it allows her to set her hours around her children’s schedule. Her son is in high school and her daughter is attending Macomb Community College.
“Over 80% of all recipients (Macomb County) are working or seniors on fixed incomes struggling to get by,” Cawvey said.
Despite the increase in SNAP benefits, mobile food banks and food pantries will continue to play an important role because the increases may not be enough to fully alleviate stress for some families.
This is particularly true in areas where the cost of living may be more burdensome like in Oakland, Washtenaw, and Leelanau counties.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, almost 90% of current food assistance recipients report running out of benefits by the end of the month.
“Though we anticipate the recent increases in SNAP benefits will help households fill more of the financial gaps that burden them and have an overall positive impact on the food security of our community, many will still need support from food banks to achieve balanced diets and budgets for their families,” said Stacy Averill, vice-president of community giving and public affairs for Gleaners Community Food Bank. “For such a complex issue as food security, food banks’ ability to be creative, nimble and reliable to meet community needs will still be necessary.”
Michiganders saw evidence of this during the pandemic when mobile food pantries started rolling through neighborhoods, providing needy families and individuals with fresh fruit, vegetables, breads, milk, dairy products and other items at a drive-thru pantry. They just pulled up to the stand, popped the trunk, and the food they needed was delivered.
“Along with our partners across Southeast Michigan, we saw people who we had never seen before, who had never previously needed food support and were navigating the challenges for the first time,” Averill said. “The challenges that households have faced are vast and varied. We are supportive of measures like this to help better achieve food security in our communities.”
Christopher Ivey, a spokesperson for Forgotten Harvest, said the overall benefit is not a lot but it will help the people they serve.
In the last 12 months this group included over a million people, totaling 51.4 million pounds of food.
According to research from the Urban Institute, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the average SNAP benefit per low-income meal is $2.27, while the actual cost is $2.41. In Michigan, even with the 15% increase, SNAP benefits do not cover the costs of an average low-income meal in certain areas such as Oakland County, where the average SNAP benefit per meal totals $2.27 while the average cost is $2.35.
In Macomb County the increase will bring the benefit for a meal to $2.27, which covers the average low-income meal of $2.24.
Over the summer, Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America embarked on a 15,000 mile, 37 state tour of local food security initiatives including an outdoor garden built for seniors at the Conrad Community Center in Capac.
Berg, who has more than 20 years of experience working on food security, told the group of seniors gathered for his visit in Capac in St. Clair County that when it comes to hunger, people really need to move beyond the stereotypes of who’s hungry and why.
“Here in Michigan, frankly, the stereotype that, ‘Oh, that’s a Detroit problem.’ Well, it’s a Capac problem. It’s a UP problem.
It’s an Oakland problem. It’s a Macomb County problem,” Berg said. “As I’ve proven on this trip, it’s a problem in every single part of the United States, every urban, rural and suburban community in the U.S.”
Berg said there are 35 million Americans living in homes that cannot afford enough food. The vast majority of the hungry are hardworking people who are playing by the rules, but just can’t afford to feed their families.
“What we see in America is the number of people who are sometimes poor and sometimes hungry is 10 times the number of people who are always poor and always hungry,” Berg said.
How is it that we recognize there’s an emergency when a pandemic or a hurricane comes, said Berg, but we don’t recognize it’s an emergency when good paying jobs in a community drop from 100,000 to 10,000 overnight.
Kathy Dickens, who is the executive director of Four County Community Foundation, which supports efforts for the needy throughout Southeast Michigan, said the COVID pandemic highlighted how close many people are to food insecurity.
“In recent months I’ve met hardworking professionals getting food from the same food pantries they donated to two years ago,” she said.
Over the summer the foundation partnered with the USDA and distributed more than 44,000 pounds of produce, dairy products and meat in Farm to Family Food Boxes at sites in Macomb, St. Clair, Oakland and Lapeer counties.
In addition to the mobile food pantries individuals and families in Macomb County have access to 72 food pantries.
“That’s how I found out about SNAP,” said Destini Davis, a single mom in Mount Clemens, who worked in a nursing home prior to the pandemic.
Davis, who was living with her grandmother in a one bedroom apartment at the time wanted to help contribute to the family’s meal so she stopped by the food pantry operated by the Salvation Army Mount Clemens Corps Community Center. The volunteers not only provided her family with everything they needed to make a meal but made her aware of other programs for people in her situation including SNAP.
“It helped out tremendously,” said Davis. She signed up for SNAP and through the Mount Clemens Corps’ Pathway of Hope program was able to go back to school to become a pharmacy technician and find housing and daycare so she and her daughter could live on their own.
“SNAP is a good thing because it helps people while they’re struggling,” Davis said.
Below are the maximum allowable benefits for SNAP customers based on their respective household size:
• One Person: $234
• Two Persons: $430
• Three Persons: $616
• Four Persons: $782
• Five Persons: $929
• Six Persons: $1,114
• Seven Persons: $1,232
• Eight Persons: $1,408
Eligible families do not need to re-apply to receive the additional benefits. People who receive food assistance can check their benefits balance on their Michigan Bridge Card by going online to michigan.gov/MIBridges or calling a consumer service representative toll-free at 888-678-8914.
The 25% permanent increase in SNAP benefits follows the 2018 Farm Bill, which directed the USDA to conduct a data-driven review of the Thrifty Food Plan. In its reevaluation, USDA was driven by the latest available data on the four key factors identified in the 2018 Farm Bill: current food prices, what Americans typically eat, dietary guidance, and the nutrients in food items.
The resulting cost adjustment is the first time the purchasing power of the plan has changed since it was first introduced in 1975 based on costs set in 1962, reflecting notable shifts in the food marketplace and consumers’ circumstances over the past 45 years.
“If it wasn’t for SNAP I don’t know what I would do,” said Manus, who fled from her home in another state because of a domestic violence situation.
It took her a while to get the help she needed but only because she never applied for the program.
“I was caught up in survival mode and kept forgetting to file the paperwork.”
Now that she and her kids are on a healthy path she plans to grow her own vegetables.
“I made this so the squirrels and skunks won’t get at my tomato plants,” Manus said, while displaying a decorative tower that she fashioned out of an old trellis she found in the trash.