Food stamp cuts will hurt more than you think

Margaret Purvis makes her living by ensuring that low-income people have enough to eat, and she sees that job as about to get a lot tougher.

That's because benefit cuts to food stamp recipients kick in Friday, a move that will siphon $5 billion off a program that helps out one in seven Americans put breakfast, lunch and dinner on the table.

As president of the Food Bank for New York City, Purvis expects those cuts will direct even more people to her organization, whose 1,000-plus member groups already provide 400,000 meals a day, she said.

"Our members are panicking," Purvis said as time wound down to the benefit decreases.
"We're telling everyone to make sure that you are prepared for longer lines."

Recipients of food stamps-officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-are expected to lose an average $36 from a $275.13 monthly benefit per household. A near-record 47.6 million Americans representing 23.1 million households are on the program, the cost of which will hit $63.4 billion this year.

The cuts are a result of the expiration of a SNAP budget increase that was part of President Barack Obama's 2009 stimulus bill. Over the past few years, a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans have voted in favor of the cuts in exchange for higher education funding and school nutrition programs. Read more >>