As grocery prices climb, millions of New Yorkers brace for the end of pandemic-era food stamps

Charisma White, in her building's courtyard in Sunset Park. White said the $195 in food stamp benefits she used to receive wouldn’t last an entire month. The $95-a-month boost, a nearly 50% increase to her food budget, has allowed White to buy items she typically can’t afford.

For nearly two years, Charisma White’s grocery list has grown to include kale, spinach, collard greens and seafood thanks to an extra $95 a month in food stamp benefits she received after the federal government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency.

The additional money going to White and more than 2.8 million low-income New Yorkers will disappear in March, leaving some households scrambling to stock up on bulk items and figure out how they’re going to cope when their food benefits are drastically cut.

“Usually, I would hit my stepmother up for some extra groceries,” said White, 45, of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, who is unable to work due to health issues. “She goes shopping at BJ's in bulk. She'll give me maybe two or three items that she has that’s too much for her household, but it'll be enough to share between households.”

Before the pandemic, White said she received about $195 a month in food stamp benefits, but it wouldn’t last an entire month. The $95-a-month boost, a nearly 50% increase to White’s food budget, allowed her to buy items she typically can’t afford.

“I’ve been able to treat myself to – like seafood – foods that are rich in iron,” said White, who said she suffers from iron deficiency anemia, which has caused her to pass out unexpectedly.

In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, for all households by at least $95 to help very-low-income families.

The emergency allotments end when the state or the federal government ends the COVID-19 public health emergency, which the Biden administration said would happen in May. However, Congress passed a spending bill in December that stopped the extra SNAP payments after February.

Anti-hunger activists warned that the reduction in the emergency food stamps will likely lead to a rise in food insecurity.

“What we're expecting is more people are going to come to the emergency food network,” said Nicholas Buess, director of government relations for Food Bank for New York City, a major hunger relief organization.

The end of the food stamp supplement comes at a time when food prices are already about 10% higher due to inflation. In addition, other pandemic-era financial support programs have ended — including the child tax credit expansion and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which helps eligible low- and moderate-income tenants pay rent arrears accumulated during the COVID-19 crisis.

‘It helped me out a lot’

In New York City, more residents received SNAP benefits in 2022 than before the pandemic, according to the city’s Department of Social Services.

As of December, over a million households in the five boroughs, consisting of 1.73 million people, received SNAP benefits. That’s up from about 875,000 households in December 2019.

On average, the monthly food stamp benefits for a one-person household are $362, a nearly 40% increase from pre-pandemic levels, according to the city’s social services agency. For a family of four, the average monthly benefits are $979, a nearly 27% increase.

Ethel Brown, 62, of the Bronx, knows the prices of all the grocery items she regularly buys because she has to stretch her $281-a-month food stamp benefits to feed herself, her daughter and two young grandchildren who live with her.

With the extra $95 a month, the former social worker can afford to buy groceries in bulk at BJ’s or Costco, which she said cost less per unit than what she’d pay at the local supermarket.

“Instead of you just buying the two, now you can buy maybe three, so you can put them aside,” said Brown. “You know, extra meat or poultry.”

Because of rising food prices, Brown has had to cut back on certain items, including Dole’s fruit cups and Welch’s fruit juices, which her grandchildren love.

“It used to be $5.99, now some of them are $8, $9, and $11.99,” said Brown. “It’s crazy.”

When her SNAP benefits shrink back to their pre-pandemic levels next month, Brown will cut back on fresh fruits and vegetables as well.

“You can't get the oranges that they like or the grapes, you can't get it now,” she said.

Maria Teresa Walles, 52, also of the Bronx, said the end of the additional SNAP funds is a hot topic of discussion among her friends, families and even strangers she runs into at the stores.

“I wish this didn't end because it really helped out people. It helped me out a lot,” said Walles, who lives with her 19-year-old daughter.

The extra $95 means cooking meals and having barbecues to celebrate major holidays, including Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and the Fourth of July, Walles said.

Walles, who was formerly homeless, said she’ll now have to buy frozen vegetables from a generic brand instead of Birds Eye.

Walles said she’ll also have to start buying some items in bulk to save money such as rice, frozen meat, coffee, cream and sugar. She’ll also look at her food budget and trim where she can, including protein bars and Welch’s fruit snacks, her favorites.

“Throughout the pandemic I was going back and forth to get those,” she said. “That's gonna slow down a lot.”

Preparing for a surge

The number of visits to food pantries serviced by City Harvest, one of the city's largest food rescue organizations, rose 75% during the pandemic years compared to pre-pandemic levels, said Jerome Nathaniel, City Harvest's director of policy and government relations.

“So we're far from out of the water from this quote-unquote back to normal sort of desire or narrative,” he said.

If the past is any indicator, visits to food pantries are expected to surge once the additional SNAP benefits end next month, Nathaniel said.

“We saw that when pandemic unemployment benefits expired,” he said. “That was $600 a week that people lost.”

Food Bank for New York City, which works with about 800 community-based groups, also anticipates longer lines in the coming months.

“When SNAP benefits are unavailable or insufficient, people come to us. They come to our food pantries and they come to our soup kitchens," said Buess.

Buess also said visits to emergency food programs and services by Food Bank have nearly doubled since the pandemic, and the level of need remains high.

“The amount of food that we have available is insufficient to meet the full community needs,” said Buess.

In neighboring New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed a law securing the pandemic boosts to SNAP for some 46,000 residents who will continue to receive a minimum of $95 a month in food benefits after the federal funding expires.

No similar proposals have been made yet in New York, anti-hunger activists said. They are asking Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to increase funding by about 10% to keep up with rising costs and increasing demands. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

“We need to ensure that food pantries have the food resources that they need and also the other resources to serve the community,” Buess said.