Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2020 will strengthen the SNAP program

Sign up for our FREE acclaimed newsletters!

The news mainstream media just doesn’t cover. Racial justice journalism since 1909.

Sign up

Before COVID-19, Americans depended on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for their meals. Now that we are in this pandemic SNAP benefits do not provide enough support for individuals and families who are struggling to put food on the table.

U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), along with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), announced the introduction of Closing the Meal Gap Act of 2020. The act will strengthen the SNAP program for millions of people affected by COVID-19 including the elderly, people with disabilities, children, struggling parents, students, unemployed and underemployed people and veterans.

This effort builds off work done by Congresswoman Alma Adams. Adams introduced the act in 2017 and again in 2019. “That’s part of the process of building stakeholders in your house. I wish it didn’t take as much time but the more stakeholders you build into the process the greater the success in terms of getting it passed,” she says.

SNAP was one of the first programs to respond to the pandemic with timely and quick resources to prevent hunger among families losing earnings, school meals and congregate senior meals. But their insufficient benefits are not enough to help families during this crisis. SNAP has barriers and restrictions that ignore the reality of today’s economy and makes it harder for people to receive the support they need.

The Closing the Meal Gap act will help SNAP better meet the need and prevent hunger during the current public health crises and beyond. “The benefits that’s been available through SNAP has helped families to some degree. We want to improve upon those which this bill does,” says Adams.

The act will permanently authorize the standard medical deduction in every state for seniors and people disabled. The act will consider how much working people, including SNAP recipients, spend on food. The act incorporates the low-cost food plan into the SNAP formula. The act will consider the cost of living for SNAP recipients who are living in areas with high rent and paying high utilities. Lastly, the act will raise the minimum benefit which is currently $16 a month to $25 a month. The amount will increase what people normally get from SNAP.

“Hunger is a tremendous issue in our country now, if we close this Meal Gap it’s going to bring us closer to ending hunger. We see it as an opportunity to really help people at a very critical time in their lives,” says Adams.