Policy Issue

Policy Watch: Extra SNAP Benefits to End

February 01, 2023

After the first week of March food budgets for over 19,300 households in MetroWest will shrink as extra Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits come to an end. About 31,350 people in the MetroWest region will be affected by this change.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act in March 2020 made funding available for households to receive the maximum SNAP benefit for their household size, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023, which was signed into law at the end of December, ends the increased federal funding. At the time of this writing, legislation has been filed in Massachusetts to provide state support to ease the abrupt change in funding.

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) has created a campaign to help SNAP users understand and prepare for these changes. A toolkit is available with communications in multiple languages and formats that agencies can use to help spread the word.

Access the state's website with changes to the SNAP Program.

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