The declared end of the COVID-19 pandemic by the federal government last month could pose additional burdens on food banks. Mike Halligan is the CEO of God’s Pantry Food Bank, which serves people in 50 central and eastern Kentucky counties. He said during the pandemic, when people were receiving stimulus payments, bigger tax credits and increased SNAP benefits, their average number of households receiving food was 350. Those programs ended last year.
“We are now seeing between 625 and 650 households a week. So it's literally double the demand that it was in the middle of the pandemic when federal benefits were maximized. And it's 20% more than what we were seeing before the pandemic.”
Halligan said 300-thousand Kentuckians are likely to lose Medicaid benefits as a result of the debt ceiling bill that raised the eligibility age of people who receive SNAP, or food stamp, benefits. He said some of them will have to choose between buying food and medicine. However, some help is on the way.
“There was just an announcement from the USDA, that they're going to spend an additional $1 billion on, on a program called TIFAB, the emergency food assistance program that will direct more food to food banks to help.”
Halligan encourages people who are food insecure to contact their local food bank.
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