47M Americans Hit By Food Stamp Cuts Starting Today

The cutbacks amount to the loss of 21 meals per month for a family of four

Food stamp benefits will be cut to more than 47 million Americans starting Friday as a temporary boost to the federal program comes to an end without a new budget from a deadlocked Congress to replace it. Under the program, known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, a family of four that gets $668 per month in benefits will find that amount cut by $36.

SNAP, which benefits one in seven Americans, is administered by the Department of Agriculture and is authorized in a five-year omnibus farm bill covering all agricultural programs. Vulnerable populations will be hardest hit by the cuts. In New York, more than 1 million elderly people or those with disabilities will feel the impact, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank. About 2.3 million children in both California and Texas will be affected.

In California overall, the cuts will affect more than 4 million residents and will amount to the equivalent of losing roughly 21 individual meals per month, based on calculations used by the Department of Agriculture, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, head of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, says the state's charities and food pantries, which distributed $227 million in food to needy residents in 2012, will not be able to make up a $190 million deficit in 2014, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reports...