The Latin Factor:
Rita Carreón, vice president for health at UnidosUS explained that more than 4 million eligible Latinos were not participating in SNAP. “A lot of these reasons were largely because either not knowing how to navigate the system,” she explained. “But also anti-immigrant sentiment and policies that were anti-family under the last administration only furthered contributed to enrollment gap.”
Raised on welfare by his grandmother, Joseph Sais relied so much on food stamps as a college student that he thought about quitting school when his eligibility was revoked.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sais said, he missed an “important letter” and temporarily lost his eligibility in SNAP, the foundational anti-poverty program commonly known as food stamps. “There were times when I was taking a test and instead of focusing on the test, I’m focused on what I’m going to be able to eat tonight,” said Sais, who graduated from Sacramento State University with a degree in political science and journalism and is now a first-year graduate student at the same school.
Sais, whose eligibility was restored earlier this year, is part of a largely hidden group that researchers and policymakers are still trying to address: full-time college students struggling with serious food insecurity. Radha Muthiah, president of the Capital Area Food Bank. calls it a hidden crisis, “one of those issues that came out of the shadows during the pandemic.” She estimates at least 30% of college students are food insecure.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture relaxed SNAP eligibility requirements for college students during the pandemic, allowing in those on financial aid with no expected family support and anyone who qualified for work-study programs, regardless of hours worked. Researchers estimate as many as 3 million college students were added to the program as a result.
But with the public health emergency over, students already receiving SNAP benefits had until June 30 to recertify and stay in the program under the pandemic-era rules. The expanded SNAP eligibility will only last one more year, and the entire program will revert to pre-pandemic rules at varying points over the next year, depending on individual state schedules.
“In the next couple months, potentially thousands of college students could be losing access to this program,” said MacGregor Obergfell, assistant director of government affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. “It’s going to be coming in waves.”
The expanded rules won’t apply to this year’s freshmen class.
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