Cuts to food stamp programs affects 47M Americans

USDA: 774,000 Marylanders rely on food stamps to eat.

BALTIMORE —Many Marylanders who rely on food stamps are bracing for billions of dollars in cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

SNAP benefits dropped back to 2009 levels after a temporary funding boost for the federal program ran out Saturday. That means a family of four that gets about $668 a month in benefits will see a cut of about $36.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake sounded the alarm this weekend about the ripple effect she expects in the wake of cuts to food stamp benefits.

"That $40 makes a heck of a difference," she said. "The month didn't cut back a week. We still have the same four weeks in a month and we need to figure out together how to close that gap."

Single, elderly and disabled recipients don't get as much as families but will see similar cut in benefits.

Joy Sylvester-Johnson, who runs a rescue mission, said she has recently seen an increase in children coming to her center.

"Basically, the losers are going to be children," she said.

With the new cut, she expects to see more families coming in for help.

"(The) rescue mission has nothing to do with food stamps. We don't take them, we don't give them, but we do see the end result, and what we're seeing is more hungry children," said Sylvester-Johnson, CEO of the Roanoke Rescue Mission.

Nationwide, food stamp enrollment is at a record high with 47 million Americans using the benefits. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 774,000 Marylanders rely on the program, and the average recipient household gets about $255 a month.

The USDA estimates 301,000 children and 147,000 disabled and elderly people in Maryland will be affected by the cuts.

Advocates said, to some, the cuts may sound minimal but in reality, they're game changers for people who are struggling to get by.

"Our food czar tells me that it's 20 meals. You can get 20 meals out of that 40 dollars," Rawlings-Blake said.

In all, SNAP cuts add up to about $5 billion. Congress is currently debating the larger farm bill that SNAP funding falls under. It includes even more cuts to the program in the $40 billion range.