State Food Pantries Brace for Higher Demand with Additional Food Assistance Ending

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023 -- 11:01 AM

(By Gaby Vinick, Wisconsin Public Radio) More than 700,000 Wisconsinites are no longer receiving additional food assistance as the federal government ends the COVID-19 public health emergency.  

According to Gaby Vinick with Wisconsin Public Radio, in Wisconsin, 718,526 people receive FoodShare, according to the most recent DHS data. That's the state's name for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

All of those participants received emergency allotments of at least $95 during the pandemic. But those additional benefits expired on March 1. Anti-hunger advocates worry the cutoff of additional benefits will cause demand for help from food pantries to soar.

The additional benefits went to 346,628 Wisconsin households as of February. That translated to more than $77 million in benefits statewide each month. The additional benefits are ending at the same time that more than 1.6 million Wisconsinites are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage if they don't renew their enrollment.

Those combined financial stressors on households are causing food pantries to brace for higher demand. In 2019, food banks distributed about 1 million pounds of food per month across their 16 different counties.

In 2020, that number grew to about 2 million pounds. In 2021 and 2022, that figure started to decline, but over the last nine months, it's on the rise again.

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