Fiscal Facts: The 101 on HUNGER needs that North Carolina should be funding during the pandemic

North Carolina currently has $1,471,100,000 in unreserved funds that could be used to meet the persistent needs of families and communities. If North Carolina were to undo tax cuts for the wealthy, we could be bringing in more than $3 billion in additional revenue each year. By failing to tax everyone equitably, North Carolina does not bring in the revenue it needs to fully fund all of the programs and services people need to thrive.

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What N.C. needs right now

  • 16% of North Carolina adults with children in their households reported not having enough food to eat during the past 7 days.1
  • 22% is the percent increase of participation in North Carolina’s SNAP (food stamp) program from February to September 2020.2
  • 258,000 N.C. children live in households that were not helped by the temporary increase to the maximum SNAP benefits initially approved in March.3

What it takes to fund these N.C. needs

  • $334 million is the total potential Pandemic EBT benefit amount that North Carolina families received in Spring 2020, given the $370 benefit to each of the more than 900,000 eligible children.4
  • 15% increase in SNAP benefits by the federal government would provide families with $25 more per person per month to cover food expenses. 5
  • $557 is the amount that a N.C. family of four would need to meet their basic food budget in 2019. The average cost of food increased by 4% between Aug. 2019 and Aug. 2020, the greatest one-year increase in over a decade.6

What N.C. is actually spending

  • $75 million to the NC Department of Public Instruction for school nutrition services provided by public schools participating in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program through the 2019-20 school year. (2020 COVID-19 Recovery Act)
  • $3.5 million for the nonprofit Reinvestment Partners to fund its Produce Prescription Program, which provides $40 per household monthly benefit for eligible recipients enrolled through their health care provider. (Coronavirus Relief Act 3.0)
  • $12 million for NC Department of Health and Human Services to allocate equally among the six food banks in the state. (Coronavirus Relief Act 3.0)

Footnotes

  1. NC Budget & Tax Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse data.
  2. NC Budget & Tax Center analysis of state administrative data.
  3. Dean, S., Hall, L., Keith-Jennings, B., & Rosenbaum, D. 2020. SNAP benefit boost would get needed food aid to the poorest participants, who have been left out. Accessed at https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-benefit-boost-would-get-needed-food-aid-to-the-poorest-participants
  4. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Food Research & Action Center. 2020. Documenting P-EBT implementation in North Carolina. Accessed at https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/9-14-20fa-stateprofile-nc.pdf
  5. Dean, S., Hall, L., Keith-Jennings, B., & Rosenbaum, D. 2020. SNAP benefit boost would get needed food aid to the poorest participants, who have been left out. Accessed at https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-benefit-boost-would-get-needed-food-aid-to-the-poorest-participants
  6. Kennedy, B. 2019. The 2019 Living Income Standard for 100 counties. Accessed at https://www.ncjustice.org/publications/the-2019-living-income-standard-for-100-counties/ and USDA Economic Research Service. 2020. Food price outlook. Accessed at https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/