-I lost my job, couldn't pay my rent.
-Many Washingtonians know hunger
and get help from their local food bank.
-It's here when I need it.
-But as pandemic food benefits dry up,
there's growing concern about a hunger cliff ahead.
-Food insecurity is at an all-time high.
-Falling donations and soaring food prices
are adding to the challenge.
-We've seen spikes of 60%, 100%.
-And lawmakers are working
to take care of the most vulnerable.
-Our food banks' shelves are bare.
-What's being done to stop community hunger
as more than half a million Washingtonians
see a cut in their emergency food benefits?
-Hunger is increasing.
-Our panel weighs in.
-This is hitting us at the worst possible time.
-The need still persists.
-Digesting the state and national nutrition crisis --
next on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪
Welcome to this edition of "City Inside/Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
A boost in food benefits for those in need,
which began in 2020 at the start of the pandemic,
has ended this month.
Advocates say that's put us on the edge
of what they call "a hunger cliff."
As millions of Americans have to take
a $90 to $250 monthly cut in food assistance.
Lawmakers in Olympia are responding
with a new funding measure
aimed at boosting our food supplies
and bridging the gap
until the state's next budget cycle begins in July.
But it's still a tenuous time for many Washingtonians,
with high inflation and an unsettled economy
dishing out plenty of question marks for the year ahead.
-Well, now you see what I'm doing.
-Vickie Seat is always ready to put in some extra work
with the Hunger Intervention Program in Lake City.
-Does anybody know where the steel wool is?
-She's washing up after her team's effort
to make meals for seniors in need,
a population that 66-year-old Vickie,
who suffers from macular degeneration,
arthritis, and depression as a survivor of domestic violence,
says she's definitely a part of.
-I've been in shelters.
I was in a transition housing for a year and a half,
and now I have my own place.
So, it's -- it's hard.
-Vickie is one of hundreds of thousands
across Washington state
who get help with their food budget through SNAP,
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
formerly known as food stamps.
-They've helped me a lot.
-The US government boosted SNAP benefits three years ago
at the start of the pandemic,
but as of March of 2023,
SNAP has been reduced back down to pre-pandemic levels.
-[ Laughs ]
-Vickie is keeping up a good attitude,
even though she's lost 95 very important dollars a month.
She tries to keep her focus
on the growing needs of others around her.
-I want to be helpful.
Even with my help and stuff, I try to be as helpful as I can.
-And the reality is, is that food insecurity
is at an all-time high.
-State Representative Mia Gregerson
of the 33rd District in SeaTac
says, "We're on the edge of what advocates call a hunger cliff."
More than 500,000 people in our state have lost
a total of nearly $100 million a month in assistance.
-Beginning next month, my food budget will shrink dramatically.
-That cut in SNAP benefits
from $200 a month down to $23 in some cases
comes at a time when inflation
continues to affect everyone's budget.
-Human suffering is real,
and we wanted to show that we can get money
into the pockets of people quicker.
-Gregerson is sponsoring House Bill 1784,
an early-action measure that would push $28 million
towards relieving hunger in Washington this spring.
A temporary fix before the state's budget cycle
kicks in, this July.
-And so, just trying to ease that cliff,
that's what we're trying to do.
Also to give us time to figure out
how do we continue to close the gap in poverty.
-The bulk of the funding would go to emergency food providers,
and not a moment too soon.
-Our food banks' shelves are bare.
-Statewide, food banks are struggling to keep up
with suddenly rising demand.
-We already know that a third of our customers
are accessing another food bank,
and we just think that that's going to deepen
with the loss of SNAP benefits.
-Joe Gruber is executive director
of the U District Food Bank,
which serves more than 1,200 households a month.
But those numbers are increasing,
part of a perfect storm,
along with low donations and a price hike
of at least 10% from wholesale suppliers.
-When we're buying $750,000 worth of food every year,
that increase of 10% makes a significant difference
as to how much inventory we have on our shelves.
-$20 million of the state proposal
would go towards food banks, with the remaining $8 million
going towards a senior nutrition program
and a boost to provide more fruits and vegetables.
-That's exciting, but it needs to be
kind of moved forward quickly.
-I know you can do this.
You're going to make -- This is not a partisan issue.
-Our state's first lady and others
helped gain unanimous support for HB 1784 in the House.
-Substitute House Bill 1784 is declared passed.
-But even with that state bill working towards final approval,
federal leaders considering the renewal of SNAP benefits
as part of the Farm Bill this fall
still hold the long-term future of food security in their hands.
-It's here when I need it.
-Will help for the hungry be here in years to come?
That's the hope as state leaders work on a temporary fix
to keep hunger in our state from going off a cliff.
-Yeah, we're going to see food on the shelves,
food in people's mouths.
-If I was able to, I would support it
because of what they did for me.
-And joining us to discuss
this very important issue further,
we have with us Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.
Thank you very much for being here.
Represents our 7th US Congressional District.
Really appreciate that.
We also have with us Christina Wong,
director of public policy and advocacy for Northwest Harvest.
Christina, good to have you, too.
And we also have Marie Spiker.
She is an assistant professor at the University of Washington,
co-lead researcher
of Washington State's annual Food Security Survey.
Dr. Spiker, good to have you, too.
Let me jump right into it.
And Congresswoman Jayapal, help us set the stage,
in terms of where we are right now, in March of 2023.
At the start of this month,
about 30 million people across the country
saw their food assistance benefits significantly reduced.
And we're talking about
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
here, folks, or SNAP.
We'll probably be using that term a lot today,
formerly known as food stamps here.
So, these benefits were increased
at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020,
but now they're going back down to pre-pandemic levels.
Before we get into exactly what you're going to do about that,
can you tell us where we are,
your concerns about the people who are impacted by this?
-Yeah. Well, thanks so much for having me on,
and I'm glad to be here with such experts on the topic.
Brian, this is about hunger, food stamps, SNAP benefits.
It's about nutrition assistance.
And this is a benefit that the federal government gives
to make sure people are not hungry.
It's that simple.
We are actually the only developed country
that requires things in order to get these benefits.
Most countries, developed countries
have this benefit built into their safety net programs.
Here, with SNAP, we've had the requirements
around needing to work, for example,
a limited amount of time,
only three months that you can you can get this
if you're an adult without dependent children.
There are a number of requirements
that we put on these nutrition programs,
which in my view are not helpful.
We should get rid of them.
But where we are now
is that we had additional benefits during COVID.
Those have gone away.
States are having to absorb that problem.
It's impossible to do
because this is a large number of people,
and hunger is increasing
and food banks are seeing increased activity.
And so, that's really what we're dealing with.
We're also going to have to re-authorize this program
this summer with the Farm Bill,
and we can talk more about that.
-Thank you for bringing that up.
But, Christina, I did want to talk about this,
in terms of the impact this change has been --
a change in benefits is having on Northwest Harvest.
Are more people coming to you for help?
Has this impacted your food supply?
I know inflation is still a big deal
for everybody involved, food banks included.
What's going on?
-Thanks for that question, Brian.
I would say that this is hitting us
at the worst possible time, really.
Food banks, for the last few months,
already have been seeing a significant increase
in the number of people that are coming to our doors.
Anywhere between 30% increase
to some have even reported double the amount.
It's not surprising.
I think all of us,
whether you've actually had to go to a food bank or not,
can see why this is happening.
When you go into your grocery store
and you're seeing this higher cost of food,
when you're going to fill up your gas tank
and the higher cost of gas.
So, and then, also, add into it the higher cost of housing.
So, across the board, those higher costs mean that
for somebody who is struggling to put food on the table,
the reason why it's impacting them
is because food is sort of that flexible necessity.
If somebody -- If I don't pay my rent, for instance,
my landlord is going to knock on my door
with an eviction notice.
But if I skip a meal in order to save that money
to pay the rent, nobody's going to knock on my door.
And with the cuts to SNAP benefits
that people are experiencing,
really their only other option is the food bank.
It's that safety net.
The reason why I say it's hitting us at the worst time
is because we are challenged by the same challenges
that are driving people to come to our food bank.
The higher cost of food, the higher cost of gas
has all been impacting our supply.
For Northwest Harvest, our current food inventory
is 80% lower than what it was this time last year.
-Wow. And I want to dive into
some of these solutions in a bit,
but thanks for laying all that out there.
Dr. Spiker, I'd love to hear some more numbers from you here.
Just in terms of what you found
in your recent statewide food security survey,
if you could first explain to us what food insecurity is,
and then talk about where this statistic
has been going over the past three years in our state
because that trend has not been positive.
-Yeah. So, thanks for that question.
Thanks for having me.
When we're talking about food insecurity,
we are talking about hunger.
We're talking about households
who are struggling to afford food.
There's an element of quantity.
How long is this food going to last
before I have the money to get more?
There's also an element of quality.
Can people get access to foods that they want to be eating,
balanced meals, things that they're excited about,
things that they know are good for them.
And when we're measuring food insecurity,
we're also picking up on this element of worry.
Are you worried about where your next meal is going to come from?
Are you worried about where your kids' next meal
is going to come from?
So, these are the things that we pick up on
when we're measuring household food insecurity.
And I am part of a team of researchers
at the University of Washington and Washington State University.
We recently conducted a fourth round of statewide survey data
from households here in Washington state.
And what we're seeing from a survey
that was open December of 2022 into January of 2023.
So, sort of a snapshot in time of recently,
just a couple of months ago
and before any of the extra pandemic boosts to SNAP
have expired.
As of that time,
when we look at our just over 5,000 respondents --
and I want to note that we over-sampled
among lower-income households --
we see that among that sample, about half,
so 49% of our respondents were experiencing food insecurity.
So, about half of our respondents
in that 5,000 households sample
struggling to afford food,
having that sense of worry
about "Where's my next meal going to come from?
Where's my kids' next meal going to come from?"
And, Christina, you mentioned this idea of skipping meals.
With food insecurity, we start to see concerning things
that we know affect people's nutrition and health status.
We started to see in our data, actually, across the board,
whether people are experiencing food insecurity or not,
a lot of coping strategies that families are engaging with
to deal with higher food prices.
Across the board, 80% of our sample
said that they are concerned
about higher food prices in the next six months.
But among our households experiencing food insecurity,
93%, almost universally,
they are worried about high food prices.
And so, some of the coping strategies
that we see in the data,
yes, people are choosing, you know, eating out less,
changing where they're shopping,
but importantly, with implications for nutrition,
buying less produce, less fruits and vegetables,
less dairy, less meat, those nutrient-rich foods
that we know are really important for people's health.
-And I was amazed to find that people
are more concerned about food prices
than they are about rent prices right now,
which was the first time ever,
as I understand it from your study there.
Thank you for breaking that down.
I would like to go back to you, Christina, here, and talk about
some of the short-term solutions going on here.
The state is working on this plan,
a pretty rare early-action bill to pump $28 million
into food benefits over the next several months.
Basically tide these things over in our state until July,
when the next budget cycle begins.
What's that going to do? Talk to us about that.
-Thanks for that question.
So, this is House Bill 1784,
put together by Representative Mia Gregerson
and Representative Timm Ormsby. That's really important, right?
Because we're talking about the vice chair and the chair
of House Appropriations hearing from community programs
about how we don't have resources
to meet this immediate hunger cliff
that's happening in March.
It's not something that we were able to plan for,
certainly not something that we could turn around
and raise money in the private sector
on such a short time frame.
And so, they are proposing
for this current state fiscal year --
So, this is just to take us through,
as you said, to June 30th.
It is $28 Million in total.
And that certainly is not backfilling
the loss of SNAP benefits coming from the federal government.
That is a total of around $95 million
that we are losing every month.
But what it is doing is it is shoring up
the ability of community programs
to be able to respond in three ways.
The first is to put some funding into our food banks
so that we can have assistance with buying food,
also paying some of those gas, transportation issues for food.
The second program area is for senior meals
because it's actually low-income seniors
who are living on their own, who only qualify
for what's called the minimum SNAP benefit.
And I want to take a quick moment just to explain that
for those individuals,
the cut in SNAP benefits is going from
over $250 per month during COVID to just $23 per month.
-And so, this gives them the ability to go get a hot meal
or have a meal delivered to them,
instead of having to come to the food bank.
And then, the last area is what we call
our SNAP-match programs or the produce match.
So, when people go to the grocery store,
use their SNAP benefits to buy fruits and vegetables,
as Dr. Spiker was just saying, is a high-cost item, right?
So, that helps increase the spending ability of SNAP
to be able to afford those fruits and vegetables,
and they get matching dollars to be able to buy more.
-Great. Congresswoman Jayapal, you've heard a little bit
about what our state lawmakers are working on.
And I know you said in a tweet a couple of weeks ago,
"The situation we're in is unacceptable.
It's time to step up and do more."
Talk to us about that. What does that mean?
What are you working on at the federal level?
We can talk about the Farm Bill, wherever you want to go.
-Well, two things. First, you know,
during the pandemic time, the Progressive Caucus,
which I chair, was absolutely key
in making sure we got these expanded SNAP benefits.
And I think it's important for everyone to understand
that this is both the right thing to do
to help people who need food, basic food.
It's also driving our economy.
I mean, when you see cutbacks in benefits,
it affects grocery stores, it affects jobs,
it affects our entire economy.
So, it's actually both a self-preservation thing
and a bigger community responsibility.
Second, this cut in benefits,
that going back to pre-pandemic levels,
is pushing about 32 million Americans into a hunger cliff,
about half a million in Washington state
who are really going to be at the bottom of the barrel,
in terms of this cut to benefits.
Third, we think about food stamps or SNAP benefits --
I like to say nutrition assistance
because a lot of people don't know what SNAP is --
-Right.
-...but nutrition assistance programs
as being maybe something in Health and Human Services.
It's not. It actually, in the federal government,
it comes through a bill called the Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill gets re-authorized every certain number of years.
And this year is the year
that the Farm Bill gets re-authorized.
Part of what's happening is we need to make up
for the benefits that people are losing,
which I have not much hope is going to happen, unfortunately,
because the House is in Republican control.
And we need to make sure
that when we reauthorize the Farm Bill,
that we do better than even what we had before,
but at a minimum, keep it at the same level.
The Republicans just introduced this week, two days ago,
a bill to cut SNAP, to cut nutrition assistance programs.
They want to make it a longer period of time,
essentially, where you would be eligible for --
where you would be required to have work benefits.
And they want to cut the actual benefit.
And to me, this is just cruelty.
We are at a time of tremendous difficulty
across the country with higher inflation,
all the costs that Christina was talking about,
all the food insecurity that Dr. Spiker was talking about.
And they are saying that the way to make this better
is through more work requirements.
We know that doesn't work.
And we also know that this is --
They're framing this in terms of cutting costs.
But listen, the deficit, which they're so concerned about,
is made up of two things -- spending and revenue.
The president has great proposals
to make the -- bring in revenue
through increasing taxes on the wealthiest
that would bring in a lot more money
than any cut to SNAP would bring in.
So, that's the work we have to do,
is reauthorize the Farm Bill and make sure
that the nutrition assistance program is stronger, not weaker.
-Thank you. And I'd like to engage,
if I could, some of that criticism from Republicans
who are saying, you know, this is a program
that is somehow making people more dependent on benefits, etc.
And I just want to make sure I touch on this.
And Dr. Spiker, it's a devil's advocate question here,
but I want to engage that.
Are we making more dependent people,
more dependent on aid programs,
not helping them be more self-sufficient?
Can you touch on that?
-You know, when you look at who participates
and benefits from the SNAP program nationwide,
I think about 43% are children, 16% are seniors.
So, more than half are children and seniors,
people for whom going and getting a job --
that argument doesn't hold.
And the other thing is, you know, for --
I do hear that sentiment a lot.
And what I ask people to think about is
that if anyone finds themself in a time in their life
that they have the luxury of not thinking so much
about their grocery costs, right?
So many people, when you go to the grocery store,
we're having sticker shock.
We're adding up the prices in our heads, right,
at the checkout line.
And if you're a person
that that's not a part of your daily life,
that's not a part of your reality,
just the next time at the grocery store,
to really pay attention
to what's going on with food prices.
Right now, or as of January,
I think the average price of a carton of eggs --
Does anybody know what it is?
-Oh, boy. It's up over $3, isn't it, right now?
-It's $4.82. -Okay.
-It's $4.82, which is just --
-That's a lot. -It's a lot. It's a lot.
I think a year ago it was commonplace to be able
to find a carton of eggs for under $2.
And so, you know, a lot of things driving that.
One is the avian flu epidemic that's been happening worldwide.
But when you look at something like
almost $5 for a carton of eggs,
or you go to certain grocery stores,
you look around, and you're seeing them for $6,
$7, $8, $9 for a carton of eggs.
And you think about that $5 carton of eggs,
that hits a household budget differently
when you earn $15 an hour than when you earn $40, right?
I mean, 20 minutes of work for a carton of eggs
that you can go through that carton of eggs
in a single breakfast, cooking for your family.
-Please. -But also, the other thing
about work requirements is the vast majority --
it's a tiny percentage of people who don't work
when they're in the category of work requirements.
It is not true that the majority of people
are trying not to work and stay home.
And so, I think we really have to
take on that whole notion that,
A, people aren't working if they're able to,
and B, that it helps at all to increase self-sufficiency.
Because the reality is, if you don't, if you're not able to eat
and your children aren't able to learn,
it is actually hurting you,
your family, and the entire community
because people are not able to do the things
that we need them to do. -Thank you.
And I want to move on to another point here, if I could.
And, Christina, maybe I can start with you,
because I do think about these short-term solutions
that we're dealing with here.
But then, I start thinking about
the long-term systemic solutions that are needed, as well.
And as important as the work of Northwest Harvest is,
I know there's a part of you
that wishes we could get to better solutions
and that a service like that wasn't needed.
Talk to me about longer-term systemic changes,
the way our nation approaches hunger and income inequality,
because I think those two are inextricably linked.
-Well, I think the Congresswoman knows this best, right?
That the fact that we have poverty,
the fact that we have child poverty,
it is a policy choice, as well as a morality choice.
What the pandemic has really shown us
has been things like the expanded child tax credit,
for instance.
You could see, while that was in place,
literally hunger for households with children
dropped by 40% as soon as those expanded benefits went in place.
And then when they stopped going in place,
guess what was the percentage
that child hunger went back up again?
-It was 40%. -Yeah.
-Also, the reason why
we're experiencing this hunger cliff now
is because of the cut to the temporary boost
to SNAP benefits.
We would really love to see in the Farm Bill
the recognition that SNAP benefits need to be modernized
in order to be able to afford just even basic nutrition.
They are currently based on something
called the Low-Cost Food Plan.
I mean, sorry, the Thrifty Food Plan,
which is sort of a market basket that USDA has put together
to help guide people about, based on their budgetary needs,
what they could afford to buy.
The Thrifty Food Plan was designed
for emergency purposes only, not for basic nutrition.
There's a study that's been done before that has said
that, essentially, with food prices today,
it's like asking a family of four to live on a fish stick
and a slice of cheese. -Wow.
-So, we have been advocates
for going up to the next-level market basket,
which is the Low-Cost Food Plan.
And that would increase SNAP benefits
because, right now,
even when we take out the cost of living adjustments
and the changes that were made
to the Thrifty Food Plan last year,
SNAP benefits are still on average $2 per meal.
-Wow. Thank you for that.
We need to start wrapping up the show.
I thank you for all of that input here,
but maybe, Dr. Spiker, I can get some last thoughts from you.
Assuming there's some funding
for another food security survey,
a fifth round at the end of this year,
what do you think you're going to find?
If you can give me the one-minute version,
that'd be great.
-You know, the thing that I think is the most important is
just that we need to keep measuring.
And the idea that our different programs
might expand and contract,
expand when there is need and contract when there isn't.
We can't make those decisions without data.
And, you know, when we look at this data,
this snapshot as of a couple of months ago,
we see that the need still persists.
And just because pandemic protections are ending
doesn't mean the need has ended,
doesn't mean the pandemic
and its multifold economic impacts
and these accumulated financial stressors on households,
doesn't mean that those things have ended.
And so, when we look at this recent data,
when we see that half of the households in our sample
are still struggling with food insecurity,
still struggling to afford food,
still worrying about where their next meal is going to come from,
we see that still persisting.
And so, it's tough for me to say
what we might find in the next round.
But I think the most important thing is that
we continue to measure because we can't say
if we're not measuring it, the problem isn't there.
As a researcher, I can't abide that.
-No. Thank you for bringing that piece up.
Christina, some final thoughts from you?
I know state lawmakers are still talking about a lot of this
as we record the show right now.
And there is plenty of support at the state capitol.
But some final thoughts for legislators
in a minute, if you could.
-Well, well.
As, I would say, along the lines
of what Dr. Spiker was saying, is that food insecurity
is something that we can expect to be with us for the long term.
We can also look at the history that was set by what we saw
during the economic recovery from the Great Recession,
which was that visits to food banks
actually spiked then and then plateaued,
never really came fully back down.
That's because people are coming to food banks
as their final safety net.
And so, we really ask the legislature
to take into consideration how they can help us out,
not just by stocking our shelves --
that's certainly helpful --
but by funding the variety investments
in our human services
that takes down the need for food banks, as well.
-Thank you for that. Congresswoman Jayapal,
I'll let you have the last word here.
You spent a lot of your career
working on these issues of inequality,
of income inequality, specifically,
and hunger and food insecurity,
I think, are a piece of that, too.
Where do we need to go?
Help us wrap this up, please.
-Well, as Christina said, and I've been saying,
this is -- poverty is a policy choice,
a bad policy choice, and we know how to fix it.
We actually know how to fix it.
We passed the child tax credit.
We got survival checks for people during the pandemic.
We allowed people to have a little bit more breathing room.
We took away some of the requirements
that actually provide barriers for the people
who are most vulnerable to access the programs.
And we need to do that again.
We need to make sure that we are thinking about
the basic needs of a family --
That's food. That's education.
That's a lot of these things
that our social safety net programs focus on.
That those are investments in all of our future,
and that the way to pay for that,
we as a country do not suffer from scarcity.
We suffer from greed.
We have a tax system that's unfair
and income inequality and wealth inequality have really risen.
So, I've got a lot of bills for that,
including a wealth tax, an ultra-millionaires wealth tax.
The president is proposing some of these things.
We actually got a couple of revenue pieces passed
in the last Congressional budget.
And so, that's the focus that we need to have.
Let's make sure people have the basic needs taken care of.
That is an investment in all of us.
-Thank you all for the input here.
And we will be right back.
♪♪
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♪♪