Month
August 2021

Early in the COVID-19 public health crisis, Congress passed specific SNAP related provisions and waivers to help struggling families put food on the table. These changes halted recertification interviews, gave families the maximum benefit amount for their family size, and increased that maximum benefit by 15%. This is all because the global pandemic has changed...
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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is one of the most far reaching, anti-poverty programs in our country.  Over 42 million individuals are helped each month by the support SNAP provides. Last week, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the 2021 Thrifty Food Plan Report. Within that report, they announced that they are...
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Empower Missouri and its Food Security Coalition applaud this week’s announcement that a long overdue federal increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will be taking place on October 1. On Monday, the USDA released a report in which they re-calculated the Thrifty Food Plan, the calculation used to set benefit levels for SNAP,...
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Legal scholars and housing advocates alike have been watching the CDC eviction moratorium closely. I’ll let the lawyers work their own theories on whether the court cases will end up supporting the moratorium or will overturn it because the CDC doesn’t have that type of authority. As for housing advocates, we know that keeping people...
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In early August, Saint Louis hosted the Racial Equity Summit. This year’s event was conducted via a virtual format and highlighted major inequities throughout our society, but it also offered timely discussions as to how we could all move forward. The summit included speakers such as Edgar Villanueva, Angela Davis, and Adrienne Maree Brown. In...
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Last week, the beleaguered Editorial Board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an opinion piece in reaction to a news story that 200 detainees facing federal charges have been bussed to out-of-state jails following the closure of the St. Louis Medium Security Institution, colloquially known as The Workhouse. The Editorial Board posits that these “inmates”...
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