SC families will keep getting extra federal COVID food aid, changing course

Hard-hit South Carolina families and vulnerable adults can expect to keep getting extra food assistance through the federal government after that added aid was set to expire in August, a reversal after the state’s COVID-19 emergency order ended last month.

South Carolina received approval from the federal government Thursday to extend the benefits through the end of the year.

The approval followed a directive Thursday from Gov. Henry McMaster, who asked the state’s Department of Social Services to do what was necessary to remain authorized by the federal government to continue getting emergency food relief to about 295,000 households until Dec. 31, or when the federal public health emergency order ends — whichever one happens first.

That means those households — representing about 610,000 people, who get on average $261 in monthly benefits already through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — will keep getting an average $177 in extra food assistance a month, sent by the federal government and through social services.

“By taking this action, we are protecting vulnerable and at-risk South Carolinians, while avoiding disruption and confusion at grocery stores and markets across our state,” McMaster wrote to Michael Leach, director of the social services agency.

McMaster joined a handful of states last month when he chose not to extend the state’s emergency orders for COVID-19, a decision that impacted the additional food aid the state was getting because federal policy required the state to have an order to qualify.

The governor’s spokesman told The State in June the emergency food benefit program was never meant to be permanent.

But Wednesday, Leach asked the governor to allow the state to try and extend the program to recognize the “emergent circumstances placed upon South Carolina residents by the pandemic,” especially the state’s “most vulnerable residents who deal with food insecurities.”

The governor’s office said the social services department will renew its request each month through the year’s end.