Below is a set of three interactive SNAP dashboards! Here are a few tips to help you use it most effectively:

  • To change between the SNAP Participants By Month, Average SNAP Benefits Per Person Per Month, and the Total SNAP Benefits Per Month dashboards, click the left or right arrows at the bottom of the dashboard.
  • To filter the dashboards by geography, such as for a specific county or for the CPFB’s service territory, click the appropriate checkbox in the navigation pane on the right hand side of the dashboard. Selections made with these filters will apply to all three dashboards.
  • To filter the dashboards by time period, use the slider in the lower left corner, or type dates into the date boxes just above the slider. The earliest possible date available is 1/1/2004; data for the present is updated monthly. Selections made with these filters will also apply to all three dashboards.

There are a few notable jumps and dips in the historical data contained in the Average SNAP Benefits Per Person and Total SNAP Benefits Per Month dashboards. Notes explaining the causation of several of these can be found below:

  • In March 2020, the federal government passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of this pandemic response package included SNAP Emergency Allotments (EAs), which allowed states to provide all SNAP-eligible households with the maximum benefit amount for their household size; this led to the sharp jump in benefits per person seen around April 2020 and the bulk of the sustained increase in benefits seen until March 2023 following the program’s expiration at the end of February 2023. The steep drop in March 2023 is the direct result of the end of EAs.
    • When first implemented, EAs only applied to households who were not already receiving the maximum benefit. However, in 2021, this policy was reversed, and households already eligible for the maximum benefit began receiving an EA of an additional $95 per month. On top of this, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia settled a lawsuit with the USDA to secure back payments to households who had not received EAs before the policy was reversed; this settlement and the following back payments resulted in the large spike in benefits seen around April 2021.
  • A smaller bump in benefits occurred in January 2021; this was the result of a temporary 15% increase in SNAP benefits included in the December 2020 COVID-19 Relief Bill. This increase ended in September 2021.
  • Another smaller, but more sustained, bump in benefits happened in October 2022 as the result of USDA’s update to the Thrifty Food Plan, which underlies the SNAP benefit formula. The update in the TFP led to an average SNAP benefit increase of 27.3% in Pennsylvania, which was more than enough to offset the end of the 15% COVID response bump, but does not account for inflation, and is dwarfed by the impact of the end of EAs in early 2023.