Millions struggling as GOP debt plan cuts SNAP benefits

Breakfast or dinner?

That’s a choice Ruth Rodriquez often has to make for her family since losing the extra food stamp benefits provided during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have been drinking a lot of coffee and a lot of water just so I could spare my plate of food for them,” Rodriquez, a single mother in Camden, New Jersey, told USA TODAY.

Since losing the added benefits, the family of four teeters on the edge of facing food insecurity along with families across the country − a struggle that could be further exacerbated by proposed Republican spending cuts in the stalled debt limit negotiations.

Smart analysis delivered to your inbox:Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter

SNAP benefits at risk

Congress enacted emergency legislation at the start of the pandemic that allowed participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP, to receive the maximum monthly benefit regardless of income in an effort to address rising food insecurity and stimulate the economy.

With nearly $400 in extra assistance, Rodriquez didn’t have to worry about how to feed her family or give up a meal to make sure her kids – adult child and two growing teens – had enough to eat.

“When we got the extra food stamps, it was a blessing. It took a lot of the burden off my back,” Rodriquez said. “We had constant food. The kids were able to take breakfast and lunch to school with them, always have something for dinner or if they got hungry in the middle of the night.”

But now, nearly three years later, millions of households are struggling to afford food as they face decreases in monthly assistance after the expiration of the added benefits earlier this year.

When her kids ask for something to eat, Rodriquez now cringes because she doesn’t have much to offer to them anymore.

“It’s hard. Like right now I don’t have anything in my refrigerator,” Rodriquez said. “I just went out and got a gallon of milk and a box of pancake mix because I had about…