United Family Network
Benefits Assistance

4 Ways President Biden Has Recently Made It Easier To Get Food

Avatar photo Jonah Jacobs
3 min read

Are you struggling to fill your fridge with food? If so, you’ll be glad to know that President Biden recently addressed food insecurity to make it easier to get the nutrition your family needs.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit families hard from coast to coast. While their budgets may be tighter than usual, that doesn’t eliminate the need for food, as it’s necessary to survive.

What can save the day when jobs are lost, and income is greatly reduced? Food assistance from the government, and President Biden recently announced several ways to increase such help alongside the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

We’ll discuss them now, so you can see if any of these announcements could help to keep your family fed until things get back to normal.

1. Extra SNAP Benefits

If you’ve never been on food stamps or SNAP before, the coronavirus may have changed that, especially if you became unemployed or furloughed due to shutdowns. SNAP can provide families with monthly funds to buy the food they need, and some good news was released regarding this assistance program.

During the spring of last year, Congress approved an emergency increase to SNAP benefits of 15 percent. This was done to combat food insecurity when the pandemic was still relatively new.
Unfortunately, that increase in food stamp benefits didn’t cover the lowest-income household, resulting in nearly 40 percent of SNAP recipients being left out in the cold.

To make the increase in SNAP benefits more accessible, President Biden signed an order to allow states to up their food stamp allotments. This should greatly help the lowest-income households stay afloat when it comes to nutrition.

While families should take this recent news as a pleasant surprise, increasing SNAP benefits can also uplift the struggling economy as a whole. According to the USDA, for every $1 billion in new food stamp benefits, the United States’ GDP receives a $1.54 billion boost.

2. Changes to the Thrifty Food Plan

As it stands, around 43 million people rely on SNAP benefits. That number could increase, though, as food stamps become more accessible. President Biden wants the Thrifty Food Plan, responsible for determining food stamp eligibility, to be revised so more people can become eligible.

3. Increase in Pandemic-EBT

COVID-19 caused many schools to close down. With these closures, many children who relied on free or low-price school meals saw their nutrition endangered. The Pandemic-EBT program was initiated to give these students funds to replace those missed school meals, and Biden signed an order to increase such funding by 15 percent. Until schools fully open again, this increase in P-EBT funding should help them stay fed and healthy.

4. Biden’s American Rescue Plan Proposal

Beyond the moves listed above, Biden also wants Congress to do the following under his American Rescue Plan Proposal:

  • Increase nutritional assistance funding for U.S. territories by $1 billion.
  • Support restaurants to help workers’ families.
  • Add $3 billion to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
  • Keep the 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits in place as long as possible.

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