Food and family assistance

Several programmes exist to keep families fed when money is short. Immigrant families use them at much lower rates than they qualify for, largely from a fear about immigration consequences that is, for most programmes, misplaced.

Cost to apply

Free, always

WIC status rule

Immigration status does not affect eligibility

SNAP

Five-year bar for some adults; children often exempt

Food banks

No application, no status questions, available today

The main programmes

SNAP (still widely called food stamps) provides a monthly amount on a card for buying groceries. Eligibility depends on household income and size. Many lawfully present immigrants face a five-year waiting period, but children, refugees, asylees and several other categories are exempt, and some states cover residents with their own money.

WIC provides specific foods, formula, nutrition advice and breastfeeding support for pregnant women, new mothers and children under five. Income limits are considerably more generous than SNAP's, and immigration status does not affect eligibility.

School meals. Free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch, and increasingly free to every student. No immigration questions.

Food banks and pantries. Charitable, not government, and generally ask nothing beyond how many people are in your household. Available immediately, with no waiting period and no status requirement.

The five-year bar catches fewer people than feared

Where it applies, the waiting period runs from the date of obtaining a qualifying immigration status, not from arrival. It does not apply to refugees and asylees at all, and in most states it does not apply to children or to pregnant women.

More importantly, it applies to the person, not the household. A parent who is barred can still apply on behalf of a U.S.-citizen or otherwise eligible child, and doing so requires no immigration information about the parent — only the child's. Households routinely go without because one adult assumed the whole family was excluded.

Applying

Applications are made to the state, usually online, and generally require identity, address, income and household size. You will normally have an interview, often by telephone.

Have the documents together before you start: identification for everyone applying, proof of address, recent pay stubs or a signed statement of no income, and immigration documents only for those actually applying. A missing document is the usual reason an application stalls rather than fails.

SNAP applications have a statutory decision deadline — 30 days, or 7 days for expedited processing where a household has almost no income or resources. Ask about expedited processing explicitly if you are in that position; it is not offered automatically.

Other help worth knowing about

• Cash assistance (TANF) for families with children in deep hardship — note this is one of the few programmes the public charge test does consider
• LIHEAP, which helps with heating and cooling bills — see setting up utilities
• Lifeline, which discounts phone and internet service
• Free tax preparation, which frequently unlocks refunds worth thousands through the Earned Income Tax Credit — see your first tax return

To work through what your household may be entitled to systematically, see checking which benefits your household qualifies for.

Beware of paid "help"

Every one of these applications is free, and every state has free application assistance. Anyone charging a fee to submit a benefits application for you is selling you something you can get for nothing — and handing them your household's documents is the larger loss.