The US struggle to pay for food: ‘No matter how well you budget, you will run out of something’

Why have some US states opted out of nearly $4bn in emergency funds that would have helped their poorest residents?

• This piece is co-published with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Brett St Amand, a 59-year-old veteran living in Georgetown, Kentucky, never planned on using food stamps. For as long as he can remember, the self-identified Republican prided himself on his independence, preferring a life in the rural outskirts of town and making his living as a self-employed horse broker.

But in the early months of the pandemic, St Amand and his wife separated, setting off a period of instability. He moved out of their longtime house, put everything he owned into a storage unit and started bouncing from one temporary home to another. During this time, St Amand - whose only steady income is a monthly VA disability check for $152 - relied heavily on local charities and churches to get by.