Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will be returning to pre-pandemic levels in March. The average decrease in benefits of $195 per month per family will hit poor and food-insecure families hard. It is likely more people will be seeking assistance from church food pantries and other feeding ministries.
Recent legislation in New Jersey raises the minimum SNAP benefit to $95 per month starting in March. Please note that this legislation does not add any additional benefits to families who would be receiving $95 or more. Printable flyers in 21 languages that explain these changes and that you could distribute are available at: https://www.nj.gov/humanservices/njsnap/emergency/covid19/. Families may also need assistance logging into the SNAP system to check their benefit amounts. If Episcopal Community Services-NJ can be of any help to you in this, please reach out to us at info@ecs-nj.org.