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SNAP! Residents To Get Less In Food Stamps

SNAP
Dept. of Agriculture

People on food stamps have been receiving a little extra in their monthly payments thanks to the economic stimulus package passed in 2009.

But Friday, November 1, those extra benefits end.

More than a million and half people across North Carolina rely on food assistance from the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.  That’s 17.7% of the population.

The economic stimulus package increased food assistance benefits to help ease the hardship caused by the recession.  But beginning Friday, the average SNAP recipient will experience a 5.4-percent decrease in benefits.  The average family of four will see a drop of about $36 a month.

Food banks are bracing for even more requests for food.  North Carolina has seen the percentage of its residents needing food assistance steadily increase over the past five years.

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
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