Food stamp benefits set to dip by $29 a month

Families on the food stamp program known as SNAP will receive an average $29 less each month starting in November.

 

The change comes as more generous benefits paid for with the federal stimulus expire.

Raymond Castro, senior analyst for the liberal think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective, said food stamps are even more vulnerable this year since Congress proposed separating them from the Farm Bill.

“There’s already been proposals in Washington to cut the program by $40 billion over 10 years. And that would even have quite an even bigger impact,” Castro said. “We’re already dealing with real cutbacks in this program, and we don’t need any more.”

The number of people in New Jersey receiving Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits has doubled since the time before the recession in 2007.

Now 10 percent of Garden State residents are enrolled; the national average is 15 percent.

About 14 percent of Pennsylvania’s residents received SNAP benefits; in Philadelphia, however, more than 31 percent rely on the food stamps, according to the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger.

And 17 percent of Delaware’s residents participate in the SNAP program.