"The increased benefits provided by this law are expected to expire on November 1, 2013," the letter said. "Most families will see their benefits decrease in November due to the end of the extra benefits provided by the 2009 law." Gwynn, 63, said a series of brain surgeries in the late 1990s left her partially deaf and reliant on $731 per month in disability benefits from the Social Security Administration. Her monthly food stamp benefit will go down from $91 to $80. That would leave her 88 cents per meal. "Eighty-eight cents won't buy anything except a cup of ramen noodles," she said.

The November reduction will be the second federal cutback affecting Gwynn's food resources this year. In the spring, across-the-board budget reductions known as "sequestration" trimmed funding for senior nutrition programs. Gwynn said she used to receive a hot lunch every weekday. "They took my lunches away because the sequester cut their budget so much they couldn't afford to pay the driver and they cut back to a once-a-week delivery," Gwynn said. The local agency on aging offered to bring seven frozen meals once a week, but Gwynn said no thanks. "When you live in an apartment you do not have a freezer large enough to hold what you already have in there and seven meals." 

The government had not planned for the Recovery Act's food stamp boost to disappear so abruptly. The plan had been to leave the increase in place until inflation caught up through annual adjustments to SNAP benefit levels, which had been expected to happen in 2015. But congressional Democrats essentially raided the cookie jar, using the future planned spending to offset the cost of priority legislation in 2010. They said at the time that they would put the money back before any decrease could take effect, but they have not kept their promise.

A family of four receiving full benefits will get $36 less, while single households will get $11 less. Nationally, the reduction amounts to $5 billion next year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It's the first month-to-month food stamp benefit drop ever. The decrease is automatic and completely separate from an ongoing debate in Congress over how much SNAP spending should be cut starting next year. Republicans in the House want to cut the program by 5 percent, which would result in 3.8 million fewer Americans receiving benefits in 2014. But Senate Democrats are unlikely to go along and benefits will probably continue with no additional cuts.

I highlight this article to make several points. The SNAP program or food stamps have grown at an amazing rate. Using Gwynn as the example placed before us by the Huffington Post she appears in no real danger of going hungry, only in America would a person starving and with no money moan that their refrigerator was too small or full to take seven frozen meals that they could eat over two or three days if need be. I would also like to point out that this free meal delivery was more proof of the added layers of government supported programs upon government support programs society has put in place.

If you qualify for one program additional assistance is most likely be available. People receiving help or aid often double or triple dip, a plethora of "additional help" options exists. From food stamps, free phones, and internet, help paying for utilities, Medicaid and medical assistance, Pell Grants, and more. If people learn to make better choices in how they spend the money given to them by the government and learn to stretch their food budget they will be fine. You do not need a great deal of money to have a reasonable diet in America. The irony of this is that those that will suffer the most is the grocery stores as their profits drop. This will also hurt the GDP and slow the false growth fueled by massive government spending.


Footnote; This post dovetails with many of my recent writings, for more I might suggest reading the article below. Other related articles may be found in my blog archive, thanks for reading, your comments are encouraged,
                        http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/06/living-on-dole.html

                        http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2012/01/food-stamp-reform-needed.html