In 2021, the Thrifty Food Plan – the baseline from which SNAP (food stamps) benefits are calculated – was reevaluated for the first time in decades, leading to the single biggest increase in SNAP budgets since the program’s inception. Deep investments in patching our broken safety net helped to stabilize Americans, and just after the pandemic we had 34 million Americans reporting food insecurity, as compared to 40 million just before it.
Unfortunately, too many of those investments were temporary. With the loss of those government investments hunger is growing again, with 47 million Americans struggling. That’s a nearly 40% increase in just two years.
Early responses to COVID-19 offered struggling Americans temporary emergency support in the form of stimulus payments as Congress passed vital — yet short term — improvements to federal nutrition programs. When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he centered the government’s responsibility to take care of those in need with key policies that were part of his “American Rescue Plan.” While many of these programs brought a measure of stability to American households throughout the pandemic, their temporary nature meant critical programs were due to sunset with the end of the public health emergency, even as families continued to struggle.
Museum Map
WISHING
TREE
The Proof is in Our History
- 1.Welcome
- 2.Welcome
- 3.The Age of Mass Migration - Landing
- 4.The Age of Mass Migration - Main
- 5.Immigration from Europe
- 6.Early Activists
- 7.The Great Depression
- 8.Charity Is Not Enough
- 9.Hunger is No One's Fault
- 10.The New Deal
- 11.Political Compromises
- 12.An Unequal Recovery
- 13.Back Door Exclusions
- 14.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Landing
- 15.Hunger, Justice, and Civil Rights - Main
- 16.The Walk for Decent Welfare
- 17.Televising the War on Hunger - Landing
- 18.Televising the War on Hunger - Main
- 19.Hunger in America
- 20.The Great Society
- 21.Bipartisan Consensus
- 22.Nixon Works to End Hunger
- 23.The Unmaking of the Great Society - Landing
- 24.The Unmaking of the Great Society - Main
- 25.President Reagan
- 26.The Myth of the Welfare Queen
- 27.Cementing Stereotypes into Policy
- 28.A New Bipartisan Consensus
- 29.Where We Are Now - Landing
- 30.Where We Are Now - Main
- 31.The Pandemic
- 32.Patching our Safety Net
- 33.Our Wish for the Future
- 34.End tour
Welcome to the Hunger Museum, a virtual project of MAZON.