CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Pandemic-era emergency SNAP benefits are officially over. But what about folks who will still have trouble feeding their families?
The supplemental nutrition assistance program, better known as “SNAP,” will continue to be available to low-income families, but now will no longer have the added boost that was added during the pandemic.
The final COVID supplement went out to recipients on Feb. 16. During the period emergency benefits were available, people were receiving an additional $95 or more on top of their normal payment.
The Outreach Liberation Church hosted a food distribution event just a day after those emergency benefits ended. They typically serve between 170 and 200 households, but the week after that final payment went out, they served 356 households with 899 individuals. They also had 14 first time guests.
“Some people have been counting on that for three years now,” Sonny Ohoge, Pastor of Outreach Liberation Church, said. “I know some folks are only being affected by $95 dollars, almost $100 dollars, but that’s a lot of money to a lot of people. And to some people with multiple children, it’s $200 or $300 they are being affected by.”
Ohoge anticipates that number going higher next week.
“I mean it’s gotten busier. It’s always busy regardless, but we do anticipate more and new people coming,” Ohoge said. “But the thing is it’s not just people that don’t work. It’s people that work and can’t make ends meet. People are being squeezed on so many fronts — whether they choose to pay electricity or feed their children, we’re going to give them as much food as we can.”
According to Feeding America food banks across the country are serving 55% more people now than before the pandemic. Food insecurity among adults and children has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to rising levels of unemployment.
“We’re a food pantry that serves but, in these times, we know that people are struggling,” Ohoge said. “It didn’t take the pandemic to know that people are struggling. It should have magnified it, and maybe we should look to help one another.”
The Liberation Church food pantry operates under Feedmore and was able to serve the greater Richmond community nonstop through the pandemic. The church does distributions every Tuesday and Thursday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
