SNAP funding: What to know
- 42 million people — about 1 in 8 Americans — rely on SNAP
- Locally, that includes nearly 2 million people in Pa., with roughly 685,000 in the Philadelphia region, and more than 800,000 in New Jersey
- Here’s how to find other free food resources in the Philly region and in South Jersey, and how to help
About 2 million Pennsylvanians who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will get some financial help this month as payments resume, but benefits will only be about half the amount people normally receive.
President Donald Trump’s administration froze SNAP food payments on Nov. 1 amid the ongoing government shutdown. After federal judges ordered payments to resume, officials announced Monday they would tap about $5 billion from a U.S. Department of Agriculture emergency fund to restore some of those benefits.
That amount falls short of the roughly $8 billion it costs, per month, to run the national safety net hunger program for people with low incomes…