Las Vegas agencies worry about effects of rolling back food stamp program

Tami Hance-Lehr, CEO of Communities in Schools of Nevada, remembers the little girl who comes to homework club twice a week at her school because it’s the only place she can get dinner.

Hance-Lehr is concerned, she said, about the status of that student, and children like her, if a Trump administration effort to roll back the federal food stamp program goes through.

“Now we’re going to have to feed her breakfast and lunch in our resource room because that’s the only place she’ll be getting food,” Hance-Lehr said.

The Department of Agriculture last week announced it would attempt to end the Obama-era policies that allowed states to extend the range of people who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps.

It’s a rollback that local food banks and programs are concerned will increase the load they take now face.

Though the number of Nevadans that would be directly affected is not yet known — a spokesperson said the state’s Department of Health and Human Services was still crunching numbers — nonprofit organizations have expressed concern about the affect it will have on less-fortunate Nevadans. According to the USDA, 8 percent of people nationwide receiving SNAP benefits would lose them under the proposed rollback.

Here’s what SNAP entails and how the proposed change will cull many people currently on the program.

Who is eligible for SNAP?

SNAP assists qualifying households with funds to help buy food.

The federal government’s baseline eligibility to qualify for SNAP is a household income of 130% of the federal poverty line. As of now, a family of four qualifies if its income is less than $25,750 annually.

States, however, have the ability to revise the eligibility requirement to make it more inclusive. Different states now have different standards around who qualifies for SNAP benefits. Currently, 43 states have revised eligibility guidelines.

Essentially, residents in the participating states that qualify for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, a financial assistance program for pregnant women and families, can automatically enroll in SNAP.

Some of these states, including Nevada, have eligibility requirements that reach up to 200% of the federal poverty line.

According to the USDA, 3.1 million people are on SNAP benefits under the expanded policy.

Many Republican lawmakers argue the current policy constitutes a loophole that should be closed. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue also has characterized the program as a loophole.

"The American people expect their government to be fair, efficient, and to have integrity — just as they do in their own homes, businesses, and communities,” Perdue said in a statement. “That is why we are changing the rules, preventing abuse of a critical safety net system, so those who need food assistance the most are the only ones who receive it.”

What will the effect be on Nevada?

Communities in Schools of Nevada is a nonprofit that helps at-risk children stay in schools. As part of their programs, they occasionally provide food to children, which Hance-Lehr said was necessary to ensure a good education.

“If you’re hungry … you can’t focus in school,” Hance-Lehr said.

She’s “absolutely anticipating” that the proposed entitlement rollback will increase the load of students that are currently not getting enough food.

“This is going to be a challenge for us moving forward, because if some people are not able to qualify for this program, (kids are) going to be coming to school hungry,” she said.

In the 2017-2018 school year, almost 64% of children in the Clark County School District qualified for free or reduced school lunch. In Nevada, 271,000 people were classified as “food insecure.”

It’s a situation that Mike Phillips, the government affairs and compliance director for Three Square, a food bank and assistance program, said can be stressful for food banks.

“We cannot do it all by what we can collect as resources as a food bank,” he said. “We definitely rely on the backbone of federal food program.”

SNAP, he said, is an important federal program that has helped families with limited resources, little spare time and little money.

“SNAP has been proven to be the most effective federal program in combatting hunger,” he said. “It’s been proven to reduce food insecurity”

Looking forward, Phillips said the exact outcome of the program’s rollback in Nevada isn’t yet known, but he is concerned about the strain it may put on Three Square and other assistance organizations.

“We don’t know exactly what that means to us, but what we can foresee is that it would put an extra burden on our pantries and places people go to receive resources,” he said.

Hance-Lehr echoed his comments, stating that she knows many food banks in Southern Nevada are operating at full capacity. An additional influx of people needing help, she said, will be difficult, but someone has to help.

“At the end of the day, someone’s going to have to pick up the slack,” she said.