RIO GRANDE COUNTY — Rio Grande County Social Service Director Jodi Kern announced last week that the emergency allotments for the SNAP program in Rio Grande County will come to an end in March. The decrease in benefits for families on the SNAP program may cause some hardships but there are tips available to help with the transition.

Kern first announced the pending change in August of last year, hoping to give families time to adjust before the decrease took effect. Now, the end date for the additional benefits has been announced and Kern, along with her department are hoping to help families as they move into lower benefit amounts.

The federal government issued a public health emergency in the spring of 2020 and has since renewed the emergency declaration due to the COVID-19 pandemic every year and was not renewed for 2023. During the time of the emergency, social services throughout the nation were able to offer additional services to those who previously would not have been eligible while the emergency declaration was still in place.

This change is happening because of the recent congressional action; the temporary increase to SNAP benefits is ending after February 2023. With this new change, SNAP households will see a reduction in monthly benefits to the pre-pandemic amount.

People that are receiving benefits can do something now to help cushion the hardship of losing the additional benefits by buying more non-perishable food such as canned goods, rice, beans and other dried food, freeze fruits and vegetables, or compare costs to make the benefits last longer than normal. These tips and more are available on the CDHS website at https://cdhs.colorado.gov/snap.

Kern and her team are also available to help with the change. To set up an appointment with a case worker, call 719-657-3381.