How SNAP Needs to Change During the Pandemic

Even if Friday’s Heroes Act were passed, we’d still see a hunger spike. Here’s why.

People who rely on public food assistance and WIC, a supplemental nutrition program for low-income women, infants and children, have been required to personally shop at stores with their benefit cards, thus increasing their risks of contagion. Photo: Yalonda M. James/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

When Grisel Cardona, a single mother with three young children, tested positive for Covid-19, she feared for more than her life. She feared she would not be able to feed her children.