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Trump's lawyer says he's been told of New York indictment, making Trump first ex-president charged with a crime

Extra SNAP benefits authorized during the pandemic coming to an end

Open_Pantry_shelves.jpg
WAMC
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The emergency food pantry at Open Pantry Community Services in Springfield, Massachusetts

Emergency food providers in western Massachusetts preparing for higher demand

Extra benefits that have been available for three years to households through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will end soon.

In Massachusetts, the last extra payment will be on March 2nd.

Emergency SNAP benefits began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The emergency food network in western Massachusetts is preparing for the impact of the reduction in monthly SNAP payments to low- income households.

WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with Christina Maxwell, Director of Programs at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.

Paul Tuthill is WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief. He’s been covering news, everything from politics and government corruption to natural disasters and the arts, in western Massachusetts since 2007. Before joining WAMC, Paul was a reporter and anchor at WRKO in Boston. He was news director for more than a decade at WTAG in Worcester. Paul has won more than two dozen Associated Press Broadcast Awards. He won an Edward R. Murrow award for reporting on veterans’ healthcare for WAMC in 2011. Born and raised in western New York, Paul did his first radio reporting while he was a student at the University of Rochester.