ALEXANDRIA, Va.—“Tens of millions of Americans in 32 states will see the pandemic boost to their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits expire at the end of February,” USA Today reports.

At the start of the COVID-19 crisis, Congress passed legislation that temporarily boosted SNAP benefits. Eighteen states have already stopped the expanded SNAP allotments.

“The extra allotments were intended to expire when the pandemic ended. President Joe Biden reportedly intends to declare the end of the pandemic in May, and Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act to end the additional allotments,” USA Today’s Medora Lee writes.

For most recipients, the extra benefit has been $95 each month. In 2021, more than 41 million Americans used SNAP to purchase food, according to The Hill, which adds that food prices were up about 10% in January month over month.

Mashable reports that the $95 was a “significant boost to the normally adjusted baseline SNAP allocations which, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, will average $186 per person per month (or $6.10 a day) in 2023.” 

Last week Instacart announced that, in the face of the reduced benefits, it was expanding its Community Carts initiative and “launching a public awareness campaign to help drive donations to food banks in nearly every state where emergency SNAP funding is expiring.”

Some seniors may feel a double whammy, USA Today reports. “After receiving an 8.7% cost of living adjustment in January, the largest since 1981, some seniors already saw their SNAP benefits drop. That's because the benefits are calculated using factors such as income, certain expenses and the number of people in your household. Social Security counts toward income.”

Discover 10 solutions for better serving SNAP customers.