This year, we’re trending to do closer to probably between 13 and 14 million pounds distributed to those 19 counties. But one thing that we’ve really seen an uptick in as far as the amount of pounds that we’re giving out – you know, food banks, we measure everything in pounds, so sometimes that gets to be confusing – our food bank before the pandemic did about 6 million pounds a year. And then we are also dealing with border issues currently in our service territory. We have rural hunger that goes out into the further part of our region that we cover. We have urban hunger, really, in Midland-Odessa. ![]() And we have all the different kinds of food problems that you would normally think of. It’s equivalent to 34,000 square miles of West Texas. What we’re seeing a lot in our food bank, we are actually doing more pounds at our small rural food bank here in West Texas. Here in Texas, we’re one of the few states left in the union that actually still has a vehicle asset verification when you’re called while trying to apply for SNAP benefits. You know, one thing we like to talk about is the asset verification that goes into qualifying for SNAP. There’s some things that go into the qualifications. Libby Campbell: Yeah, give or take some change. ![]() Texas Standard: It looks like for a single adult to qualify for SNAP benefits, you can only make what it is, around $23,000 a year? And even then, the monthly benefit itself is around $280? This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity: ![]() Listen to the story above or read the transcript below. Libby Campbell is chief executive officer of the West Texas Food Bank and she joined the Texas Standard to talk about the state of SNAP benefits in Texas. But in a state as big as Texas, a lot of people have come to depend on this money – money that’s soon coming to an end. In practice, this extension of benefits is relatively modest, mostly ensuring that recipients of SNAP receive at least $95 a month. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020, families around the nation have been receiving emergency allotments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as SNAP and often thought of as “food stamps.”
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