SANTA FE, N.M. (KAMR/KCIT) – The New Mexico Human Services Department announced the official end of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) emergency allotments on Wednesday. As of March 2023, SNAP customers are expected to receive regular non-emergency benefit amounts.

As previously reported on MyHighPlains.com, the emergency increase to SNAP increased monthly benefits for most recipients by an extra $95 monthly since its approval at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 17 states saw the benefits expire in January 2023, while New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas joined the remaining states in seeing the end of the extra assistance in March.

As described by the New Mexico HSD announcement in an example, the SNAP emergency allotments allowed a family of three to receive $740 each month in SNAP benefits, which was the maximum possible for a family of that size. With the end of the extra benefits, a family of three is expected to go back to receiving the average amount of $335 per month. A one-person household with no income is expected to have benefits drop from $376 each month to $281.

“Now more than ever, we encourage the public to support food banks, nonprofits, faith-based partners and others who have been serving the community non-stop even with the emergency allotments in place,” said Kari Armijo, Interim Acting Secretary for the New Mexico Human Services Department, “HSD is working with these partners to continue helping families in need across the state.”

With families in the SNAP program facing a possible loss of nearly half their benefit amounts from the last few years, as noted in previous reporting, food banks and other nonprofits are preparing for a spike in demand due to increased levels of food insecurity.

Polling from the nonprofit No Kid Hungry noted in February that more than one in five Texans reported worrying that they or their families will not have enough to eat. Further, officials estimated that 516,537 New Mexicans will be impacted by the end of the extra SNAP benefits.

New Mexico’s HSD announcement detailed that SNAP customers have been mailed a notification about the end of extra SNAP benefits, as well as detail on their exact regular benefit amounts starting in March 2023 and the date of the month those benefits will be deposited into their EBT cards.

Further information on the New Mexico SNAP program can be found on the HSD website.