More than 6 million people enrolled in food stamps in the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented expansion that is likely to continue as more jobless people deplete their savings and billions in unemployment aid expires this month, the New York Times reported. From February to May, the program grew by 17%, about three times faster than in any previous three months, according to state data. Its rapid expansion is a testament to both the hardship imposed by the pandemic and the importance of a program that until recently drew conservative attack. The rolls have surged across Appalachian hamlets, urban cores like Miami and Detroit, and white-picket-fence suburbs outside Atlanta and Houston, rising faster in rich counties than in poor ones, as the downturn caused by the virus claimed the restaurant, cleaning and gig economy jobs that support the affluent. Food stamps — formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — support young and old, healthy and disabled, the working and the unemployed, making it the closest thing the U.S. has to a guaranteed income. Though administered by states, the benefits are paid by the federal government, with no spending cap, and the program has largely avoided the delays that have plagued unemployment insurance. After long pushing to reduce SNAP usage, claiming it promotes dependency and waste, the Trump administration eased administrative rules during the pandemic to speed enrollment. Florida and Georgia have expanded caseloads the most, and state officials from both parties have called the program an essential anti-poverty tool.
