Hunger looms as more and more states end food programs

By bellecarter // 2023-03-14

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that helped many Americans at the height of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will be gone soon as the federal public health emergency comes to an end on May 11. Some states have actually ended their respective food programs. "This means many Americans are going to have very little money to spend on food at a time when economic conditions are starting to get really rough," renowned author Michael Snyder wrote on the Economic Collapse Blog. Snyder cited a Washington Post article reporting that poor people had to wait in a mile-long line in Kentucky just to get some free food. One recipient named Danny Blair said he and his wife received a letter announcing that his pandemic-era benefit to help buy groceries was about to be slashed as local lawmakers voted to end the state's health emergency last spring. "By default cutting food stamp benefits was created to help vulnerable Americans like Blair weather the worst of COVID-19. Instead of $200 a month, he would get just $30," the Post's Tim Blair reported. In California, about 31,000 Santa Cruz County residents who receive food money through CalFresh, the state's SNAP funded by the Department of Agriculture, are expected to get fewer dollars in April when the pandemic-related program expires. According to a local news site, CalFresh will also reintroduce work requirements for students who receive food assistance. During the pandemic, some students from low-income households could receive food stamps without working. But starting this summer, students will have to work at least 20 hours a week. "It's a shame that we're reverting back and not continuing such programs that had some rich data outcomes," Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino said. "I think that we should look at this as a failed policy decision." Similarly, hundreds of thousands of Virginians will lose temporary help with food and medical coverage in connection to the end of the public health emergency. The final issue of Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, which provided free meals to school-age children in the state will come in August. Meanwhile, the last emergency allotments that increased SNAP benefits are ending this month and those for college students will end in June. "This is the country that we live in now," Snyder lamented. "Once upon a time, we had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now the middle class is being systematically destroyed."

Various factors are bringing America down

In his blog, Snyder pointed out various factors that would bring the nation into full economic collapse. "The cost of living is increasing faster than our paychecks are, and that means that our standard of living is going down," he said and cited housing prices shooting up faster than it was at any time during the last housing crash. Fox Business recently reported that Atlanta Feds Housing Affordability Monitor, which compares median home prices and other housing costs with median household income, found housing affordability to be worse today than during the peak of the 2008 housing bubble. "As of December, the median American household would have to spend about 42.9 percent of their income to afford the median-priced house," according to the index. Also, car loans have become too risky to venture into as more Americans are getting behind on their payments while dealing with the current inflation. This exhausts consumer spending power. A report from Cox Automotive found 1.89 percent of auto loans in January were severely delinquent and at least 60 days behind payment, the highest rate since 2006. Worse, Big Tech companies as well as other industries that thrived during the pandemic are mass laying off their workforce due to misprojections and massive overhead expenses. "The raw, unadjusted number showed that the U.S. economy actually lost 2.5 million jobs last January," Snyder said in a separate article. (Related: Layoff saga continues as 12 more companies announce mass employment terminations.) Visit FoodCollapse.com to read more about factors that may cause food collapse. Watch Mike Adams' documentary below entitled "Breaking Point," which touches on the sabotage and breakdown of the food supply infrastructure. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

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Various factors are bringing America down

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