States scale back food stamp benefits even as prices soar

(AP) – Month by month, more of the roughly 40 million Americans who get help buying groceries through the federal food stamp program are seeing their benefits plunge.

The reductions come even as the nation struggles with the biggest increase in food costs in decades.

The payments to low-income individuals and families are dropping as governors end COVID-19 disaster declarations and opt out of a still-ongoing federal program that made their states eligible for dramatic increases in SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps.

The increased benefits were in response to surging unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the country.

The result is that depending on the politics of a state, people find themselves eligible for significantly different levels of help buying food.