Millions of people in the U.S. are now facing the precipice of a hunger cliff.

Starting in 2020, the pandemic pulled back the curtain on the tattered state of the U.S. safety net and the millions of families who were falling through. Hunger rates were expected to soar like they did during the Great Recession.

But that’s not what happened.

Thanks to a pandemic expansion of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, millions of Americans kept food on their tables during an unprecedented public health and economic emergency. These “emergency allotments” made food easier to access and increased the number of people who were eligible. Hunger rates stayed put during the emergency — and poverty actually fell.

Unfortunately, that enhanced food assistance came to an end last Wednesday because Congress failed to make them permanent. With the double whammy of inflated food prices and other pandemic supports like the expanded Child Tax Credit, eviction moratoria and expansions in Medicaid also ending, millions of American families are now at risk of going hungry.

This is a critical moment for our nation. We must not allow struggling workers or our children, grandparents and disabled loved ones to fall back into hunger.

Read the rest at The Hill.