When I was 13, a pair of foster siblings, Carla and Rodrigo, came to live with my family. For the two of them, the move brought a period of much-needed stability – and, for the very first time, reliable access to food.

Yet scarcity had already left its mark.

The day she arrived, Carla began hoarding. She stuffed bags of cookies beneath her clothes and hid cans of Chef Boyardee under the bed. I’d sometimes find her on the couch late at night, the faint glow of the television lighting her face as she ate the ravioli cold straight from the can. My mom, mindful of Carla’s past, filled our cupboards with the red-labeled cans – a small gesture of reassurance. Carla stockpiled them under her bed anyway.

Food scarcity, I learned, can haunt you.

This month, as millions across the US have seen their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits (Snap) benefits lapse or be significantly reduced, I’ve been reflecting on the experience of both Carla and the many food-insecure families I spent time with while researching my book, How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America. For most of these families, who lived extremely close to the bone, Snap was a lifeline. Far from supplemental, it was how they put food on the table, day after day, year after year.

Understandably, much attention has focused on the immediate impacts for families of these critical benefits not being disbursed in........

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