{"id":12537,"date":"2020-12-24T18:40:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T18:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12537"},"modified":"2020-12-24T18:40:42","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T18:40:42","slug":"texas-lawmakers-consider-bill-to-streamline-snap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12537","title":{"rendered":"Texas lawmakers consider bill to streamline SNAP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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COVID-19 has increased demand for emergency food, decreased food donation amounts, and forced disruptions to charitable food-assistance programs.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Photo: congerdesign\/Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By ROZ BROWN
<\/strong>Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Food insecurity doubled at the start of the pandemic, according to a study released earlier this year<\/a>, and Texas groups that advocate for seniors say more must be done to find a permanent fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathy Green, manager of outreach and advocacy for \u2018AARP Texas<\/a>, said legislation to be considered by Texas lawmakers in January would simplify requirements for people seeking help through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. For many older people, she said, the online SNAP process isn\u2019t user-friendly \u2013 but they need help with groceries nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe estimate that there\u2019s about 11% of the Texas senior population that faces food insecurity,\u201d she said, \u201cand that is very likely underreported.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texas Legislature next month will take up Senate Bill 224<\/a>, which is designed to streamline requirements for seniors and people with disabilities seeking SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Celia Cole, chief executive of the group Feeding Texas<\/a>, thousands of agencies and volunteers helped with food distribution before the pandemic, but the virus forced a change in the distribution model. She said many food banks have closed their doors and fewer volunteers are available, meaning parking lots are used for assembly-line-style food distribution, which not all seniors can access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFood banks are distributing 60% to 100% more food than they were prior to the pandemic,\u201d she said, \u201cso that\u2019s been the biggest challenge, is just getting more food out into the community so we can keep pace with the demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AARP has noted that some seniors have difficulty navigating the internet to complete online SNAP applications. Green said they\u2019d be more comfortable talking to someone on the phone \u2013 which is one of many issues the legislation would address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor seniors, and individuals who are disabled, it would shorten the application,\u201d Green said, \u201cand it would also extend the time period that somebody has to be recertified for SNAP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted that the legislation would extend recertification to every three years instead of annually, and also would improve outreach to make sure older Texans know they may qualify for more than one program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Food insecurity doubled at the start of the pandemic, according to a study released earlier this year, and Texas groups that advocate for seniors say more must be done to find a permanent fix. Kathy Green, manager of outreach and advocacy for \u2018AARP Texas, said legislation to be considered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12540,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12537\/revisions\/12540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}