With the holidays quickly approaching, many recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are facing the added pressure of having their benefits cut.

With the holidays quickly approaching, many recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP for short, are facing the added pressure of having their benefits cut.

Effective November 1st, the boost in food stamp allotments given to help offset the impact of the recession, will expire.

On average, recipients will receive 1 dollar and forty cents per meal less.

Depending on family size, that adds up to as much as 36 dollars per month.

At present there are 48 million people who rely on the benefits, nearly half of which are children. Among the youths, 10 million live in households with an income 50 percent below the poverty line.

While there was talk that the cuts would be remedied somehow, there haven’t as of yet been any measures taken to maintain the current level of assistance.

The upcoming changes have community groups and food banks getting ready to fill in the gaps between means and need.

One seasoned charity worker in Texas estimated that while the recession-era benefits could provide a family with three weeks worth of meals, the cut rates have a maximum yield of about two, maybe two and a half.