There is an urgent call from anti-hunger charities for Democratic Joe Biden to expand Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Pandemic-EBT programs.
Just days after the presidential election, the former vice president, who was declared a winner in the election by major news organizations, is currently faced with demands to reverse some of President Donald Trump's initiatives.
According to the Washington Post, anti-hunger group movements are calling on Biden's help to change initiatives created under President Trump's administration, which are regulatory policies focused on reducing the number of Americans eligible to avail food assistance.
These programs are the SNAP, WIC food benefits, and Pandemic EBT. SNAP is said to be the most extensive federal nutrition assistance program that provides services to eligible low-income individuals and families.
The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food assistance program aims to help families get access to healthy food, nutrition education, and breastfeeding support.
Pandemic EBT, on the other hand, is a program for families with children eligible for free or reduced-price meals at school.
FoodCorps' Senior Manager of Policy and Advocacy Mamiko Vuillemin said the next administration should immediately put a stop to the proposed rules by the Trump administration and reverse any regulations that have already been finalized. That is in light of the unprecedented food insecurity situation across the country brought about by the pandemic.
According to the Household Pulse Survey, an estimated 11 percent of American adults or 24 million individuals claimed that their household sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past seven days.
This data is reported to be far beyond what was recorded during the months before the pandemic. Biden's campaign platform proposed an increase in SNAP benefits by 15 percent.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claimed that by increasing the SNAP benefit by 15 percent, it would be able to help over 16 million Americans, including seven million children.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Vice President of Policy Avenel Joseph is anticipating this resolution will be a priority of the Biden administration.
Similarly, Senior Policy Analyst Ed Bolen, together with the anti-hunger advocates, urged Biden to look at the food needs of infants and toddlers since WIC had seen a decline in participation for the past six years.
There was also a proposal to extend eligibility to postpartum mothers and to remove the burdensome reapplication process.
Finally, in dealing with the current food insecurity aggravated by the global pandemic, expanding SNAP and Pandemic EBT and establishing a living minimum wage should be the immediate next step.
This is according to Executive Director at WhyHunger Noreen Springstead, who believes that the pandemic has laid bare the cracks in the food system, causing food insecurity, skyrocketing farm bankruptcies, and unprecedented supply-chain disruptions that require bold solutions.
Reports said there is a new SNAP proposal that will result in a cut on benefits to around three million people and hamper automatic access to free school meals for about one million children.
