President signs emergency coronavirus funding bill, including safeguards for WIC, SNAP, and other nutrition programs

Enforcing work requirements right now “would be catastrophic,” says Elaine Waxman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank. “[It’s] particularly a risk right now because you may have very rapid shifts in unemployment …. It’s just putting stress on a system that may be completely unable to receive it.”

As Covid-19 cases rise dramatically, consumer spending has plummeted, prompting layoffs in virtually every industry, from travel to entertainment to dining to tech to journalism. Such volatility makes it impossible to foresee just what the job market will look like tomorrow or even next week.

The House bill would also mandate two weeks of paid sick leave for some workers whose health or whose family members are sickened by Covid-19; businesses can then be reimbursed via tax credits. However, there’s a significant catch to this provision: It would apply only to “employers with fewer than 500 employees and government employers.” This exempts a sizable number of companies in the food world including grocery store chains like Wegmans and restaurant groups like Dunkin’ and DineEquity, the parent company of IHOP and Applebee’s. Public health experts have long argued that paid sick leave reduces the spread of disease by encouraging contagious workers to recover from illness, without having to risk the loss of income. 

The bill has been praised by anti-hunger advocates: “Families and workers across the country need access to vital programs and basic needs,” reads a statement issued by the anti-hunger nonprofit Food and Research Action Center. “The bill protects people most in need, and so protects all of us.”

Among its provisions is a $250 million boost to the senior nutrition program, which provides food to low-income elderly Americans. As you’ve likely heard, older people face an elevated risk for serious illness stemming from Covid-19. At the same time, funding for senior nutrition programs has been spread thin by coronavirus-related pressures.

For example, last week, Sound Generations—a nonprofit that provides communal meals and social services to seniors in the Seattle area—began to shutter its dining sites as a precautionary measure to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spread. But because Sound Generations receives federal funding on a per-meal reimbursement basis, the loss of group dining could jeopardize its entire operation.

Sound Generations is now operating at about 30 percent of its usual capacity, estimates Suma Mondal, program director of community dining and volunteer transportation. It continues to feed seniors via its meal delivery programs.

However, “we have running costs, we have [to keep] our employees staffed,” Mondal says. “We’re worried.” Not to mention, “a part of our revenue comes from client donations and in this climate there is no way we can ask anyone for any suggested donations.” 

Meals on Wheels, a large nonprofit that supports senior nutrition programs nationally, wrote in an emailed statement that the Families First bill would likely help meal delivery services for seniors fill in the gap left by shuttered group feeding operations. “This additional funding would enable local Meals on Wheels providers to continue to deliver meals to not just their existing senior clients, but a new wave of at-risk individuals looking for home-delivered meals.”